The organisation that Liveryman Nigel Shepherd heads provides food to the military across the globe. Now he is feeding soldiers sailors and airmen and women from his spare room.
Defence Food uses key contractors to supply food for our Armed Forces, primarily those on Operations or Exercise, within the United Kingdom and throughout the world including British Forces South Atlantic Islands, the British Army Training Unit in Kenya and British Gurkhas Nepal. We also supply world-wide in-flight catering and dog food ( important not to get them mixed up). We are also responsible for Operational Ration Packs (ORP). These are designed for personnel on the front line and unable to eat at an established site, often in difficult and dangerous locations. We produce about 1.5 million rations a year, divided between ten-man packs (for use by chefs in field kitchens), to individual boxed rations designed for one person for one day. So, what is it like to operate this from home?
Stringent
In very early March Exercises in Belize, Germany, Norway and Oman were cancelled or postponed as those countries were either affected earlier by Coronavirus or imposed more stringent restrictions. I was at the cinema on March 17, the day before they all closed, when to the consternation of the two other people there my mobile rang with the cancellation of a large Exercise in Germany. In fact, that morning we had already been advised that as many of us as possible were to work from home. Since there were still some key joint decisions to be taken, my team continued to operate from our Bristol offices. That week was surreal as very few of us were in the building and we had to complete our work as quickly as possible. This included an audit of the Meal packs being assembled at the production plant, where we first witnessed the now common social distancing measures.
On Monday March 23 it was clear that office-working would end that evening. We packed laptops, keyboards and screens and headed into a new world. At this stage the military were being stood up to tasks as varied as logistic support, the assembly of Nightingale hospitals and support to ambulance staff. Fortunately we have very flexible contracts that allowed us to switch feeding locations with ease and thanks to the highly versatile Single Meal Ration we can provide an ambient, shelf-stable one meal solution (it comes with a flameless ration heater).
Bedroom
All this was going on as I occupied the smallest bedroom (thank goodness the last of the children moved out with great reluctance in January) and found, along with many, the joys of Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype – and if all else fails the telephone conference. Interviewing a new member of staff without having formally met her was one of this periods most different moments.
Compared with so many in the hospitality industry my experience counts as nothing against those who have lost businesses, their lives or their self-esteem. However, it demonstrated to me that working from home (previously a cover to get the shopping done) does work, productivity has improved as there are less distractions and we are still feeding the Forces. Long term you do lose that essential team focus. However, I cannot believe that this period will not result in a fundamental change to the way we conduct business.
