Office surprise

Many people who read this know me and know where I work, but regardless, I'm going to keep this vague. Nonetheless it is important that I begin by saying I work at a major international law firm -- one of the largest in the world. We are moving offices in Chicago over the weekend and our new office will have a "cafe" -- basically a subsidized restaurant/cafeteria for employees only. They could have taken a lot of different approaches to this and frankly I was expecting it to be convenient but a place I'd only go in an emergency. Well low and behold today they send around a brochure and I was VERY pleasantly surprised. The space will be managed by Flik. Everything is made there -- and made without trans fats, using only dairy that is growth hormone free, using only cage free eggs, using only sustainable seafood (according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's guidelines), focusing on local ingredients grown within a 150-mile radius, with numerous vegetarian options and using approx. 95% certified organic ingredients! Wow. Who could have expected that? All of a sudden our "cafe" just became the most appealing place to eat in all of Chicago for lunch. Let's just hope the food tastes good :)

POST SCRIPT:

I've been thinking about this post since it went live. What we have here is a company that has chosen policies and standards well above the industry standard and a law firm that has chosen to pick such a company to manage its employee restaurant (and implicit in that is that attorneys, support staff, etc. appreciate those heightened standards to such an extent that they are more likely to spend their dollars there). These are the facts that I wanted to point out and to praise.

Are things perfect? They are not. As I wrote to the President of Flik, while I commend the choices that they have made, one thought they should consider is incorporating grass-fed meat and pastured poultry (and/or eggs from pastured hens which goes a large step beyond cage free). Nonetheless what you have here is a massive improvement over the alternatives. Further, and even more simply, you have a company that CARES. Do they care because of the bottom line (these policies will bring more dollars) or because they really care? It doesn't matter. What matters is that a company has decided, for profit or otherwise, that healthier food from more responsibly treated animals (here just the egg-laying hens) is the right move. And through those choices the "fan base" is perpetuated. Anyone who reads that brochure and hasn't truly considered local produce may start to think about the benefits. Or may see that they only use hormone free milk and consider the benefits of that next time they hit the dairy aisle in the grocery store. People respond to the messages around them (just look at the response to "cage free" eggs today or the response to veal before that). Thank you Flik. Keep it up and keep trying to be better.