At Wholegrain Digital, we strive to be as sustainable as we can in as many areas as possible. We’ve created our catering policy to provide everyone with a guideline on purchasing food for the business so that it is inline with our sustainability policy and procurement policy. We operate a Plant Based policy, which means as a company we will only reimburse you for food that is either vegetarian (no meat of fish) or plant based. For any team events where food is being purchased, this also applies.

Catering for company events

Catering for company events and meeting refreshments should be plant based. A plant based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with no animal products. 

Where possible, we always aim to source our food from ethical, organic and local stores.

Places we recommend sourcing food from

Local catering for meetings:

  • Grazing food is a great option for catering in London for slightly larger meetings. They have a lot of Vegan options and run a sustainable business.
  • Vegan London Kitchen
  • Pret has some great quick options for your smaller meetings. We always opt for their Vegan and veggie options when catering for internal or external meetings
  • You can use deliveroo or uber eats account to order food also.

If your purchase food for a meeting, you can find out how to claim expenses over on our expense policy page

Team Meals and Christmas meals

Any team meals including our Christmas meal should always be held at a vegetarian or vegan restaurant. 

For other team meals, we should aim to choose a vegetarian or vegan restaurant. We understand that this is sometimes not possible and therefore, would appreciate it if our employees opt for veggie or vegan options where possible.

We’ve discovered a few vegetarian and plant based gems around London that are relatively close to Somerset House in case you need to organise a team meal or take clients out for a more formal meeting.

Exceptions

Clients – Our Plant Based Food Policy does NOT apply to food ordered directly by clients. For example, if you meet a client at a cafe and offer to buy them a coffee and they request a cappuccino with dairy milk, this can be purchased and claimed on company expense. We voted for this policy as a team but should not impose it on our clients as food is very personal.
Note: Of course we try to guide the client towards a plant based option for example ‘give them only vegetarian options to pick from’

Allergies – If you have a food allergy or intolerance that makes following this policy difficult, you should inform our People Manager or a Director and ask to be granted an exemption.

Examples

Qualifying meal expense – You are on a business trip paid for by Wholegrain Digital and go to a sandwich shop for lunch. You purchase a vegetarian sandwich and juice. This would be a claimable meal expense provided you attach the VAT receipt to your expense claim.

Non qualifying meal expense– You are on a business trip paid for by Wholegrain Digital and go to a sandwich shop for lunch. You purchase a BLT sandwich and juice. Your sandwich would not be a claimable expense as this is a meat product and not inline with our food catering policy, however you may claim your juice provided you attach the receipt to your expense claim.