Biz Spotlights
Green Business Spotlight: Simply Thyme
Simply Thyme Catering offers a full range of catering services to customers in the Vancouver and Portland Metro area. They have the ability to prepare for every occasion, including individual meals, corporate luncheons, large weddings and everything in between.
Based in Vancouver, Simply Thyme has been serving the local community for almost 15 years. Over the years, they been recipients of numerous Best in Business Awards presented by the Vancouver Business Journal, and in 2017, the catering service was awarded Clark County's Small Green Business of the Year. Head chef and owner, Tamara Leibfarth, is proud of their efforts and loves to show off their green business award to customers and employees whenever she can!
Simply Thyme offers green alternatives at every level of service. One of Simply Thyme's defining practices is to pack out more than they back in. Instead of disposing waste on-site, staff brings the clients' trash, compost, and recycling back to their facility to be sorted and disposed of properly. For a small fee, clients can request china to decrease their event waste. In the kitchen, Chef Tamara is focused on local, seasonal ingredients when possible, and dishes are prepared to cut down on food waste. For example, vegetable trimmings are used to make soup stock. They also participate in a program that utilizes 90% of their food scraps to feed chickens.
As a lifelong environmentalist, Chef Tamara is dedicated to living a healthy, sustainable life and enjoys sharing her philosophies and practices with her employees to help them become greener, both in their professional and personal lives. She encourages them to bring in their recycling, chicken feed, and composting from home to be properly disposed of. This past summer, Chef Tamara also grew produce in her raised beds and greenhouse that employees could take home once she used what was needed for their events.
"Our food is the voice for our company, catering to people, places, and causes. We serve all things good for the good of the earth, by serving others and leaving where we've been better than how we found it."
Simply Thyme
For more information on their green practices and initiatives, visit Simply Thyme's profile on the Clark County Green Business Directory.
Solid waste regional planning and programs are a cooperative effort of Battle Ground, Camas, Clark County, La Center, Ridgefield, Vancouver, Washougal, and Yacolt.
