Support the Community: Tadında Anadolu

“As a company that operates in high-traffic, global locations like airports, we see ourselves not only as a food and beverage provider, but also as a cultural and social touchpoint,” says Melda Tuna, Sustainability Leader in Operations at Tadında Anadolu’s parent company, BTA. “This means we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to positively impact the communities we serve, as well as represent them.” 

Whether it's sourcing from local producers, creating fair employment opportunities or engaging in education and empowerment projects, the team at Tadında Anadolu believes that strong communities build resilient businesses. “This belief guides how we hire, where we buy from, how we train our teams and even how we design our guest experiences,” Melda shares. “By embedding community support into every layer of our operations, we’re not just giving back: we’re building long-term value, trust and shared purpose. In short, when our communities thrive, so do we.”  

Let’s dive into what this looks like in practice. 

Supporting the community at Tadında Anadolu 

Tadında Anadolu’s commitment to supporting communities is reflected in several long-term educational projects; these are deliberately aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 4, ‘Quality Education’, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. For starters, Melda says, the business provides direct support to the Koruncuk Foundation, contributing to the housing, care services and well-being of girls whose access to education and other basic supports is at risk.

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“One of our key initiatives is our partnership with Mérieux Nutrisciences, through which we provide training to small-scale suppliers to enhance their food safety and quality standards,” Melda continues. To date, they have successfully trained 19 small-scale suppliers in areas like food safety, logistics and labelling, enabling them to continue operating with improved quality and compliance. 

Tadında Anadolu also runs a vocational training programme specifically designed for high school graduates, helping them gain the necessary skills to enter the foodservice sector. This programme has created job opportunities for high school graduates, several of whom have now been integrated into operations at Tadında Anadolu or those of other employers in the industry. “These success stories are strong indicators of how education-driven programmes can bridge social and economic gaps,” says Melda. 

Supporting the community also means making spaces accessible to every customer, something that is very much reflected at Tadında Anadolu. “We believe that access to services must be inclusive and equitable, so we prioritise accessibility in the guest experience,” says Melda.

One of their most impactful initiatives in this area has been the development of digitally accessible menus for visually impaired guests. “By using AI-powered image descriptions, we enable our menus to be read aloud with rich, sensory details — allowing visually impaired individuals to explore and choose their meals independently, with dignity and confidence.” This project has received highly positive feedback from users, particularly from visually impaired individuals who reported feeling increased levels of autonomy and comfort while navigating these menus. 

Communication is key 

Recognising the importance of formalising ideas and beliefs into policies, the team at Tadında Anadolu has developed a series of policies and pledges to strengthen community support, particularly within the supply chain. “Whenever possible, we prioritise women-led enterprises, small-scale producers and start-ups that provide sustainable solutions, aiming to foster inclusive growth and innovation,” Melda says.  

“Beyond supply chain practices, one of our core missions is to raise public awareness around key sustainability challenges,” she continues. These include everything from climate action and plastic pollution to forestation, protection of waterways and responsible resource use. “Through both our operational choices and communication efforts, we seek to drive collective consciousness and long-term change.” 

These communication efforts have not gone unnoticed. “Our sustainability campaigns, both internally and through social media, have contributed to increased engagement from employees and guests around topics like climate action and waste reduction,” says Melda. “We’re now seeing growing interest from partners and startups who want to collaborate on similar initiatives.” 

What are the challenges of supporting the community? 

“One of the biggest challenges we’ve faced has been navigating structural limitations within the supply chain — especially when it comes to integrating small-scale suppliers who meet the necessary quality and compliance standards,” says Melda. As with any foodservice business, a significant part of the Tadında Anadolu supply chain relies on agricultural products. “When we talk about supporting communities, small-scale farmers are among the most critical stakeholders,” Melda observes.

She tells us that many of these producerHow to Start Reducing Pollution in Your Hotel or Restaurants lack access to resources or training to align with industry requirements. “We are looking for more partners to be able to support these producers, especially in how they can get necessary certification so they can reach more potential buyers,” she says. “One of the most transformative system-wide changes would be the creation of multi-stakeholder partnerships involving NGOs, restaurant associations and local or national government bodies to build the infrastructure that allows small producers to access markets, including restaurants.” 

She says that this support shouldn’t be limited to logistics, but should also support these producers in growing their capacity. “Small producers often face challenges with compliance, documentation and visibility,” she says. “A dedicated platform could help them navigate regulatory requirements, obtain necessary certifications and promote their products to potential buyers. Such an initiative would not only support local economies, but also enhance transparency, food quality and traceability across the industry.” 

New ways to support small-scale producers 

With this in mind, the next big goal for Tadında Anadolu is to build a catalogue of sustainable small-scale producers, and they are currently in discussions with two partners who will ideally come on board for this project. “Our goal is to make this resource freely accessible — not only to restaurant owners and industry professionals, but also to households interested in making more responsible choices,” Melda says. 

The catalogue will go beyond just food and beverage ingredients. “We aim to include a wide range of sustainable products and services such as eco-friendly cleaning supplies, FSC-certified napkins, reusable packaging alternatives and waste management contractors,” she says. “By connecting responsible producers with conscious buyers, we hope to create a more transparent, accessible and sustainability-driven ecosystem within the hospitality sector and beyond.” 

Food Made Good at Tadında Anadolu 

The team at Tadında Anadolu signed up for the Food Made Good Standard in 2024. “We wanted to validate our sustainability efforts through an internationally recognised, credible framework,” says Melda. “While we had already implemented a wide range of sustainable practices, it was important for us to ensure these efforts were measurable, holistic and aligned with global standards.” 

The team was particularly impressed by the comprehensive nature of the Standard. “What stood out to us was how deeply it examined the operational realities of running a sustainable restaurant, from menu planning and food sourcing to waste management, energy use, team wellbeing and community engagement,” she says. “It was also a valuable internal learning experience. The Standard helped us identify areas where we were strong and those with room for improvement. It became a strategic tool to guide our next steps and create a structured path forward. As a result, the Food Made Good Standard has enhanced our ability to communicate our sustainability journey with greater clarity and confidence with our guests, our teams, partners and stakeholders.”