This is going to be bad – I’m writing about food in that time period between lunch and dinner.  It’s kind of like going grocery shopping while hungry – it never ends well.  When I’m picking menu choices I always try to do it either right before or with lunch.  That way when I’m reading about “warmed goat cheese with a hazelnut crust served with fresh-baked pita chips” I’m either already eating or just about to.

Holding a green meeting isn’t a trend that is going away and one way to be “green” is to buy your food locally.  Of course hotels don’t let you bring in bread from the local bakery but you can work with your venue to get them to develop a “100 mile meal”.  Granted this can be a challenge at times in Canada as you just aren’t going to get a fresh orange within 100 miles of Grande Prairie, Alberta in February.

But ask!  Not for the orange, but for local.  I don’t know why they don’t scream this from the grandstand rafters, but the Calgary Stampede has a fantastic catering division that buys local.  Their sales and events teams even toured local farms and growers to understand where the food is coming from.

Canadian Rocky Mountain Resorts (http://www.crmr.com/) is another great example.  They are an interesting example of vertical integration with a bakery in Canmore baking bread for all their hotels and restaurants, a wine shop in Calgary sourcing for all their wine lists and a ranch producing their exquisite game meats.

Buying food locally just makes sense.  It tastes better (not having been on a plane for 10 hours to get to your table), it gives back to the local economy and it was probably produced in a more sustainable way so it is better for the environment in the long term.

Be realistic about your options here but talk to the chefs about what you would like.  I’ve also found a bonus in that when I ask the chef for a 100-mile meal I get a unique menu for my group – which means my attendees are less likely to say “I had this same chicken lunch at an event last week”.