Call for food and drink community players

Food and drink organisations from across the UK will be able to get recognition for their impact on their local community and the natural environment by entering this year's Community Partnership Awards (CPA) organised by the Food and Drink Federation (FDF).

This year's CPAs support the FDF's focus on 'delivering sustainable growth', recognising organisations that are not only exceptional in terms of their business success, but are also committed to making a positive difference be it to their local community, their natural environment or their staff.

Alongside the CPA's established categories of: Apprentice of the Year, Education, Environment, Good Employer, Health and Wellbeing and Local Community, the new categories for 2012 are: Export Success of the Year, Growing Business of the Year and Developing Skills for the Future a category dedicated to innovative recruitment and retention activities.

Heading up this year's judging panel of industry experts will be John Stevenson MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Food and Drink Manufacturing. Food Manufacture editor Rick Pendrous also sits on the judging panel.

The CPAs are free to enter and are open to businesses up and down the food chain, from farming to restaurants. The closing date for entries is Friday May 4. Winners will be announced at a celebratory lunch at Shakespeare's Globe in London on Wednesday October 24.

Terry Jones, FDF's director of communications said: "The CPAs are an important opportunity for us to recognise the positive impact of food and drink businesses across the UK not just to their local communities, but to the economy at large. The new categories for this year's CPAs reflect our focus on delivering sustainable growth and will enable us to recognise how innovative and entrepreneurial food and drink businesses are, whilst also being a sector of whom we can all be truly proud."

For further information and details of how to enter the awards, go to www.fdf.org.uk/cpa.