Montgomery Group works smart to reduce food waste at events with City Harvest
City Harvest has partnered with Montgomery Group, the UK’s biggest independent exhibition organiser, since 2017 to rescue surplus food from renowned London food and drinks events.
Est. 1895, Montgomery Group is the UK’s longest-running independent events company. It runs 50 events worldwide and co-locates in 15 countries.
City Harvest team collects event surplus from Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2023, Kensington Olympia
An evolving partnership
The partnership embodies a shared ethos to reduce as much waste as possible from large-scale events. These include Montgomery Group’s IFE at the ExCel Centre and Speciality & Fine Food Fair at Kensington Olympia.
City Harvest exhibits at both shows annually, allowing the team to grow its donor network, and rescue food from exhibitors on-site. In the last seven years, the surplus food collection has become more efficient due to exhibitor education and operational support from the Montgomery team.
The partnership extends beyond the exhibition venues. The Montgomery Group team enjoys volunteering at City Harvest’s Acton food rescue depot throughout the year.
Navigating the challenges of large-scale food events
The team at Montgomery Group recognises the challenges when it comes to making their events sustainable, whether it’s the materials used at the event, or how surplus food is redistributed to communities facing food poverty via City Harvest.
“In the events industry, we’re essentially building a city and taking it down within a few days, so it’s really important for us to make sure that every part of the event is sustainable.
City Harvest is a massive part of that, just making sure that we’re keeping sustainability and food waste in mind, throughout the event and throughout the year. And any food left over by our suppliers gets a good second home at charities around London.”
City Harvest spoke with Montgomery Group’s PR Director, Nicola Macdonald, and Operations Manager, Kate Bridle, about the importance of diverting surplus food at Montgomery Group’s events, and how its evolved over the last 7 years into a slick and sustainable solution to event surplus.
At the International Food and Drink Event 2024, City Harvest rescued 8.9 tonnes of surplus food – the equivalent of 21,397 meals.
“Reducing food waste starts with exhibitor education. We will always encourage exhibitors to only bring what they think they might need”
Kate Bridle, Operations Manager: “Sustainability is one of the most important topics in the exhibition industry. Currently, exhibitors and visitors are really wanting to see organisers drive positive change with sustainability, whether that’s using reusable stand builds or recycled carpet and of course, forming meaningful relationships with charities like City Harvest to reduce waste.”
“City Harvest provide us with an impact report for the work on our events and it’s really helpful for us: monitoring and tracking our sustainability work.
[…] Making sure that we’re kind of benchmarking ourselves and improving every year. Since 2017, we’ve become much more collaborative. We’ve done a lot more throughout the year rather than just at the events. Our team love volunteering at City Harvest”.
Your Sustainable Solution to Surplus
City Harvest rescues food, for free, from all parts of the UK food industry, and delivers it to 375+ community partners across London. Take action against food waste and food poverty today by sustainably diverting your surplus.
