International Women’s Day 2017: Celebrating the women fixing both sides of the food chain
This International Women’s Day we’re shining a light on the inspiring women improving our food system. In the field, in code, in logistics…you name it, the women we know are doing it. Here are the stories of five of our food producers and three members of the Farmdrop team who’ve worked against the norm of the male dominated industries of farming and tech to bring you the best, freshest produce in the most ethical and convenient way, ever.
Our Producers
Rowie Meers, Owner of Purton House Organics
Wiltshire-based organic farmer Rowie lives for ethical farming and agriculture. Juggling a home life with three daughters alongside her vegetable crops, pigs, sheep, cattle, gregarious egg laying hens and farmshop, Rowie is dedicated to the organic way of life and complete traceability. Managing a busy mixed farm whilst continuing to innovate in organic growing methods isn’t easy, but Rowie’s strength, belief in family farming, selling direct to consumers via Farmdrop and the buzz she gets from growing has kept her going — here’s to an incredible woman!
Bridget Hugo, Founder of BreadBread Bakery
Bridget eats, sleeps and breathes real artisan baking. The co-founder behind the Franco Manca restaurants (famous for it’s utterly divine sourdough pizzas) and brains behind the award winning wholesale bakery BreadBread in Brixton, Bridget learnt the art of proper slow, natural baking whilst travelling in southern Italy. You won’t find cheap quick fixes like additives, fast yeasts or improvers anywhere near her bakery. For Bridget it’s all about traditional two-day fermentation methods, natural organic British-milled flours and the use of sustainable authentic wood fired ovens which make her loaves stand out from the rest. When asked what she produces, she replied: ‘the best bread in London’ — after all, it’s so good, they named it twice.
Pippa Murray, Founder of Pip & Nut
Pip loved making her own delicious, health-packed nut butters but hated the fact that you couldn’t find a supermarket alternative that wasn’t full of hidden nasties. So she bought a powerful blender, donned an apron, and on that day Pip & Nut was born. After beating off stiff competition to win the chance to live rent-free in a shed for three months and develop a business idea, Pip quit her job, got stuck in and has since gone on to secure investment of £120,000 via Crowdfunding. People couldn’t get enough of the stuff and pretty soon she needed a bigger blender. Pip & Nut butters are now stocked by over 170 stockists and Pip believes that persistence is the key to her success!
Milly & Sally, Skinny Dipping
School friends Milly and Sally met at school and both shared a passion for healthy dips made from natural wholesome ingredients (Milly for cooking them and Sally for eating them). Request after request from friends and family to produce more of the good stuff prompted the pair to go into business and from there they created Skinny Dipping. Milly and Sally believe in bringing the fun back into eating healthily and the dips they sell are the same flavours that they love to eat at home. Using only 100% natural ingredients, they’ve swapped for the pesky hidden additives found in most shop-bought dips for even more veg, meaning customers can dip happily and healthily. Kale, chilli and lime dip anyone?
Natasha Steele, The Urban Cordial Company
Natasha made her first bottles of cordial from an Elder tree by her allotment. Working for a consulting firm at the time, as a creative outlet to escape her boredom she found herself foraging for more fruits in London, with bemused passers by observing as she shook apple trees to get the juiciest fruit from the top. Using 60% ‘saved’ fruits that would otherwise be wasted because they don’t meet supermarket standards’, she stumbled into a farmer’s market with her first batches of cordials. When her entire stock of hundreds of bottles was sold over just a few weekends, what started as a fun idea suddenly felt like a viable venture.
At Farmdrop HQ
Gemma, Head of Operations at Farmdrop
Gemma fell into the industry by accident. Initially considering a career in fashion, as a student she skipped her operations lectures thinking she’d never need them. Things changed when an interviewer at John Lewis turned her down for a logistics role but changed their mind and offered her the job when they saw her potential. Gemma then went on to to work at ASOS, exploring delivery innovations at the beginning of the fast fashion era.
After a few years she turned her attention to making a difference to our food chain and convinced a recruiter that although she had no food industry experience she’d be a perfect fit at Farmdrop. Two years later, Gemma’s work in the world of low emission logistics led to us being the first food delivery company in London to have a 100% electric fleet of vehicles. She says: “Being a woman in operations (a predominately male industry) has made me stronger, more assertive and more determined to show what I can do. There’s absolutely no reason why there shouldn’t be more women in the sector.”
Jenna, Quality Assurance (QA) at Farmdrop
Beginning her technology career in sales and customer support, Jenna was drawn to a quality assurance career following years of experience listening to feedback from customers and wanting to have more input into the product itself. As QA, she makes sure all customer facing technology on the site is completely free of errors before reaching customers. With farming in her family and a personal interest in agriculture, sustainability and (of course) good food, a job in food tech was the next logical step. When asked about what it’s like working in a male majority field, she said: “I’ve had pretty good experience as I’m confident giving my opinion. It’s important for women to pursue roles in male driven industries like tech as a balance makes for a better collaborative environment.”
Aliki, Software Engineer at Farmdrop
Aliki always loved IT and maths at high school, so after studying for a masters in advanced software engineering she gained plenty of experience in tech before joining Farmdrop as a Software Engineer. She enjoys getting creative and writing new features, although she doesn’t know why it might be that there are more men than women in tech, saying: “It’s always important to have passionate people in the field and there’s no reason that women shouldn’t get as much enjoyment out of the role as men.”
Find out more on International Women’s Day’s celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women, and their call to #BeBoldForChange for a more inclusive, gender equal world.
