The current event catering market is limited in terms of cuisine, and often menus fail to meet the needs and preferences of a range of guests. While companies want to host exciting, inclusive events, it is challenging for them to take orders from individual cooks who can bring this diversity and inspiration to the table. Catering providers are spread across multiple channels, and there are concerns surrounding the transactions and food hygiene regulations. Therefore, we built Hey! Food is Ready, an online marketplace to connect independent cooks from around the world with corporate event organisers. Our service helps companies accommodate a diverse range of tastes, bring culture to the workplace, and support their local community.
Using our platform, event organisers can browse from a range of our cooks and choose the menu, date, time, and location of their event. Cooks can use our platform to upload their dishes, availability, receive orders via our management system, and prepare it using authentic, fresh ingredients. A courier service transports the food to the event for the guests to enjoy.
Our platform is designed to help refugees, immigrants, stay-at-home parents, retirees, or anyone who loves cooking in the UK to generate a meaningful income and share their native cuisine, culture, and stories with the wider community. We also create opportunities for companies to use our platform, implementing EDI & ESG targets and creating inclusive working environments while enjoying the delicious and authentic world food.
Over the past 12 months, we launched our MVP product in both Newcastle and London, onboarded over 60 cooks to the platform representing over 40 different countries, from Sri Lanka to South Korea, Greece to Turkey, providing event catering service for high profile clients including Google, Barclays Eagle Lab, and the Department for International Trade. We tested out our business ideas with them and have a growing community of over 5,000 people.
Among all the home cooks we work with, over 85 percent are women, despite the industry average for female chefs being only 17.5%. We have also developed a partnership with two refugee and immigrant centers in Newcastle. We helped them build a community kitchen for those who may not have access to cooking facilities so they can sell on our platform and onboard once they receive settlement status from the government.
As part of a growing movement to build a more inclusive food system for all, in the next 12 months, our goal is to onboard more cooks and corporate clients. Therefore, we are seeking additional funding from Innovate UK to further advance our system, automate the ordering system to make it intuitive, accessible, and inclusive to accommodate our diverse audience base. Through this project, we want to showcase how inclusive innovation can help businesses grow and illustrate how food can bring cultures and communities together.