Glossy vegetables and fruit fresh from Norfolk fields and orchards are delivered across the county by a business set up to help key workers in lockdown.
Now Goodery sends out 250-300 boxes of organic fruit and veg to all kinds of customers every week, helping people enjoy healthy food, while treading lightly on our precious planet.
Matti St John and his brother-in-law Josh Smith helped launch Goodery and have grown it into a thriving Christ-centred business with its own market garden.
Matti, who was a youth worker for St Thomas Church, Norwich, and Josh, who had studied environmental science at the University of East Anglia, had both been travelling before the pandemic hit. Back home they wanted to help.
“Myself and a few friends had this idea of delivering organic veg boxes to NHS staff who were struggling to get to the supermarket,” said Matti.
They found an existing organic veg box company and encouraged people to donate boxes. It led to people wanting to buy boxes for themselves too. “When the lovely chap running the business wanted to retire we took it on,” said Matti.
He and Josh are both members of Norfolk’s network of house churches, Garden Church.
“We wanted to do something good and that spoke of God’s redemptive work. And the other part is delivery, so we called it Goodery, for good delivery,” explained Matti.
Organic, and with net-zero emissions, Goodery delivers, by electric van, to homes across a swathe of Norfolk and Waveney, centred on Norwich and taking in Holt, Yarmouth, Bungay and Thetford.
“I think the majority of them would definitely know that Josh and I have a faith. We are very open about it and a large proportion of our customer base really respond to that,” said Matti.
“A massive thing for us is how much better this produce is than non-organic produce. We are trying to care for creation in a way that is regenerative, and think about where our food comes from. As much as possible is from our market garden (in Bintree, near Fakenham) then we go to local Norfolk and Suffolk growers and then further afield in the UK and as far as eastern Europe for some fruit.
“I didn’t have any business or agricultural experience but I love the mechanics of running a business and I love the way you can use business as mission and to work for God’s kingdom.
“We are seeing real fruits from our business and as a vehicle for mission.” To find out more visit https://goodery.co.uk
