Serving Vulnerable Customers During The Pandemic
In 1997, Edward Perry and Dale Penfold came together to create COOK – with the idea of cooking and selling frozen ready meals that would be made like you would at home.
Ed, with background as a travelling salesman for his parent’s small bakery, was inspired by his parents’ handmade frozen cakes, and looked to apply this to savoury meals in the same way.
Partnering up with one of his clients and expert chefs, Dale, the pair opened up their first shop in Farnham selling handmade, frozen ready meals. After repurposing an old disused pizza delivery kitchen, buying some second-hand kit and bringing on board Spencer, the COOK sous chef, the team perfected their recipes and have now grown to the point of owning 90 shops across the UK.
In 2013, COOK became one of the UK’s first certified B Corps, committing to put social purpose and the interests of the wider community at the heart of its operation. In the same year, COOK’s employees voted the company as one of the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For – a title which COOK has retained ever since.
This focus on employee wellbeing is also reflected through the paying of the living wage to staff, and the introduction of a COOK salary gap of no more than 15x.
Responding to the pandemic
While many businesses were forced to close as the pandemic first hit, COOK were able to remain open. Staff wellbeing was a priority for the business throughout, with the team drawing up a detailed plan to enable everyone to work from home while staff were only encouraged to come in if they were happy to do so.
Conscious of the impact of initial stockpiling and panic-buying in the early days of the lockdown, COOK compiled a list of vulnerable customers to whom orders would be prioritised, including through the creation of a secret web page for them to use for their orders.
In March last year, COOK also started putting aside free meals in its shops for customers looking after vulnerable neighbours. This initiative grew into the COOK Kindness Fund, which aimed to donate a total of 100,000 meals and treats to those most in need during the pandemic. By June this target had been reached, and in the run up to Christmas COOK put aside a further 50,000 meals for local people in need. As of March 2021, COOK had given away almost 200,000 meals working with local hospitals, care homes, food banks and community groups.
Following the resounding success of the scheme, the Kindness Fund has been made a permanent part of COOK’s local community work.
COOK stand as an outstanding example of the good that family businesses can contribute to their local communities, and we’re proud to be working with them for Family Business Week. For more information about COOK, please visit https://www.cookfood.net/.