Here at Brighton Yoga Foundation, we’re extremely happy to tell you all about another of our brilliant sponsors for this year’s Brighton Yoga Festival – the award winning team at Riverford Organic Farmers. Riverford is well known across the UK for delivering fresh, organic vegetable boxes straight to your doorstep.
The story behind Riverford Organic Farmers
Riverford Organic Farmers was founded in 1987 by Guy Singh-Watson in Buckfastleigh, Devon. Guy’s innovative fresh produce box scheme grew from humble beginnings when he started by delivering his vegetables locally to 30 friends across the county of Devon. However such small numbers no longer exist for Guy and his team as the company now delivers roughly 47,000 boxes of goodness a week to homes throughout the United Kingdom. All of which contain vegetables grown organically in Riverford’s regional farms.
Whilst the company endeavours to grow the majority of its produce itself, the high demand of varied modern-day eating has meant that the company has also joined forces with a group of family run growers and producers within the UK. The future of sustainability looks bright in the hands of small-scale organic farmers and Riverford thoroughly enjoys working alongside them in order to ensure that all their food is completely traceable. They choose only to sell the products of people they believe to be trustworthy.
Why were we so pleased to partner with Riverford?
Nourishing food is the backbone of a healthy and happy Yoga practice and with the benefits of many vitamins found in fresh fruit and vegetables the body is able to energise itself for the time it spends on the Yoga mat. Therefore it simply made sense that we take the opportunity to partner with a company that is providing many UK homes the opportunity to taste organic produce delivered straight to them (fuss free). We also respect deeply the ethical work being done by everyone involved at Riverford, through a passionate belief in “good food, good farming and good business” they take every step in caring about where their produce comes from.
It isn’t just a shared passion for healthy food that makes us proud to be sponsored by them but it is also their compassionate efforts in giving back to charitable causes (not just us). Over the last five years Riverford has also been fundraising for their other charity partner ‘Send a Cow’ and have managed to raise an impressive £307,700. Not only have their charitable ventures benefited communities internationally but they also employ a ‘Grade Out’ system within the company. This means that any fruits and vegetables that are too large, too ripe or a little bit damaged definitely don’t go to waste! They will either be donated to local charities, used in the staff canteen, taken home by employees or fed to their lovely family of dairy cows.
Where can you find them at this year’s Yoga Festival?
On the 27th & 28th of July you can come and see the passionate team with us at BHASVIC. We are excited to be joined by them for the weekend and you will be able to see them on both Saturday and Sunday in the retail area. If you’re interested to know about them or simply want to have a chat then wander down to their stall in between your fun filled day of Yoga, workshops and so much more!
