When Hillary Barbour was named director of strategic initiatives for fast-casual Burgerville in 2016, she felt she had “landed a dream job.”
Barbour previously had been deputy district director for Congressman Earl Blumenauer, which enabled her to pursue a passion for agriculture, energy and environmental public policy and, after that, policy director for non-profit alternative-energy advocacy group Renewable Northwest.
And Vancouver, Wash.-based Burgerville LLC had long been known for such policies as supporting regional suppliers, buying renewable energy offsets, sourcing local ingredients, using cage-free eggs and its large subsidy of qualified hourly employee health insurance premiums.
Now Barbour is helping to deliver on 42-unit Burgerville’s vision to make the Pacific Northwest the healthiest region on earth by serving food created through “trust, transparency, innovation and partnerships” including regenerative agriculture a growing buzzword in food sourcing.
“I’m proud to be a leader in that vision,” she added.
Among Burgerville’s recent mission-oriented moves, Barbour noted, was the launch at 11 locations of the “No. 6 Burger.” Named after carbon’s atomic number, that item uses 100% locally grown and produced ingredients, including beef grazed on grass from organic-matter-rich soil with the capacity to store carbon rather than release it into the atmosphere to build greenhouse gas.
“For someone to walk into a Burgerville and be able to bite into a delicious, locally sourced, 100% grass-fed/grass- finished burger, with premier local cheese and a bun that has healthy whole grains and also comes from locally grown and milled wheat and is produced by a legacy Northwest bread bakery, all for $7.95 – Well, I think that’s pretty groundbreaking,” Barbour said proudly.
Contact Alan J. Liddle at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @AJ_NRN