Sustainability and Our Community

We shop and source our food products locally whenever possible.

In Lancaster County, we are blessed with amazing farmer’s markets. This is our “go-to” source for much of our fresh ingredients. We get to know the knowledgeable market vendors. They provide us with not only the highest quality ingredients, but also allow us to purchase in precise quantities. In-season produce in Lancaster County cannot be beat!

Table loaded with produce and baked goods.
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We shop strategically to minimize waste.

This is accomplished through recipe-specific quantities being purchased. Also, we coordinate our recipe development where we can cross-utilize any bulk-purchased ingredients in a single day or week of production.

We compost food scraps generated at Dish Works.

To be a good environmental steward, we compost any eligible food waste creating a nutrient-rich material to go back into the earth. This minimizes what gets hauled away and ultimately ends up in a regional landfill.

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Up-cycling props conserves our environmental resources, and makes our food styling unique!

Our team is always on the lookout for that special dish, utensil, fabric, or cutting board at our local yard sales, consignment shops, antique markets or auctions. We always have cool new “treasures” coming into the studio that did not require resources to be newly produced.

We utilize reusable packaging and bags.

Our goal is to minimize the use of disposable plastics. Our decisions of where to purchase products are driven by this factor.

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Natural options are used over chemicals.

We explore and utilize effective ways to clean without the use of harsh or damaging chemicals.

Extra ingredients are donated to our local mission serving those in need in Lancaster City.

As we work with a variety of food clients that supply their own products, we find ourselves with a variety of excess high-quality foods. The mission effectively uses these donations to support those food-insecure in our local community.

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We work with and donate to PA Eats.

PA Eats is a non-profit organization based in Pennsylvania that closely collaborates with Feeding Pennsylvania to provide educational content to those that depend on food banks and pantries throughout the state to feed their family.