Free-range pork wins over care homes group

The pig farm selected by the Elder Homes Group is on land the business owns and is run by the managing director's father. Even so, there is a cost implication which the group is prepared to take on because it believes its customers and their families want better taste, better nutrition and more animal welfare assurance than they have been getting from imported factory-farmed pork.

Private-sector catering is one of the markets most resistant to the campaigns on behalf of British and high-welfare meat but the managing director of Elder Homes, David Messenger, says his customers and his head chef, plus the quality of his father's pork, have raised his awareness of customer concerns about sourcing.

Elder Homes runs 800 beds in 15 homes around the country, including The Links in Bradford, and the Lady Park, Beck Croft and St Ives Young Disabled care homes in Bingley, and Dearnlea Park at Rotherham. Its land bank includes 20 acres at Cheddleton, Staffordshire, where James Messenger runs 80 mixed-breed pigs which roam freely and are fed organically.

His son, David Messenger, based in Clacton, Essex, said this week: "My father retired from farming in Scotland and started this business and he has organised several hog roasts which convinced everyone that there was no comparison in taste between his pork and what we were buying."

He added: "Everybody is looking more closely at their food nowadays. Why should elderly people be different? "We use the equivalent of 100 pigs a year and in future they will all come from my father. At the same time, we are moving towards using all fresh organic vegetables."

CW 8/5/10