British Reporter — The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift in how people gathered, celebrated and enjoyed food around the world. In Spain, weddings were cancelled, family gatherings were postponed, restaurants were closed for in-person dining and vacations were few and far between.
For the farmers and producers who supply food for these events, the demand for their products fell greatly. Many wound up with excess supply that few had the money, or reason, to buy, McDonald’s notes.
Our team at McDonald’s Spain saw local producers hurting and leapt into action to create a brand-new menu item that would not only be delicious, but also involve and benefit as many Spanish farmers and producers as possible.
According to McDonald’s, typically, McDonald’s will create an amazing new recipe, then find producers who can supply all the ingredients. This time around, we identified producers greatly impacted by the pandemic, and created an amazing new recipe around the ingredients they could supply. And we did this quickly – we wanted the final product in our restaurants as soon as possible.
In April 2020, McDonald’s Spain team set out to find local providers who were the most affected by the pandemic. Within seven months, they created the recipe for the Big Good Burger – made from seven ingredients supplied by 2,000 producers:
100% Spanish beef from Extremadura
A bun made with wheat flours, rye and spelt gathered from Castilla-León, Cataluña, and Madrid
Batavia lettuce from Navarra and Murcia
Goat, sheep and cow milk cheese from Castilla-La Mancha and Galicia.
Mediterranean sauce with olive oil and vegetables from Andalusia and Extremadura
Onions from the north of Spain
Tomatoes from Andalucia and Murcia
The Big Good Burger was a huge hit – more than 2,000 farmers and suppliers benefitted.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald’s Spain had committed to purchasing more than 70% of its restaurant ingredients from Spanish providers. The Big Good Burger truly showcased the quality ingredients produced by Spanish farmers – even during hard times.
