Earlier this summer, it was announced that Cardiff had been awarded Silver Sustainable Food Places status, becoming the first place in Wales and one of only six places in the UK to achieve the prestigious accolade, recognising the city’s pioneering work in promoting healthy and sustainable food.
The work in Cardiff is co-ordinated by Food Cardiff, the city’s rapidly growing food partnership which has evolved into a dynamic, strong and inclusive network of good food activists. Food Cardiff, which is hosted by Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team, now includes 127 individuals across 74 organisations and has a strategy board that includes a range of members, including Cardiff Council, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, Wrap Cymru, Riverside Real Food, Public Health Wales, Action in Caerau and Ely as well as many others.
Through this network of dedicated partners, Cardiff is driving change at a city level and is working to tackle some of today’s biggest social, economic and environmental issues.
Cardiff’s Silver Sustainable Food Places Silver Award recognises the city as one of the most sustainable food places in the UK and the award is based on achievements across six key issues:
- Taking a strategic and collaborative approach to good food governance and action.
- Building public awareness, active food citizenship and a local good food movement.
- Tackling food poverty, diet related ill-health and access to affordable healthy food.
- Creating a vibrant, prosperous and diverse sustainable food economy.
- Transforming catering and procurement and revitalizing local and sustainable food supply chains.
- Tackling the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming and an end to food waste
“This award is a testament to the huge movement we’ve seen from citizens, groups, businesses and institutions to make healthy and sustainable food the norm, for everyone, in Cardiff” says Pearl Costello, Food Cardiff’s co-ordinator and author of the Silver submission.
“It’s an award that can be attributed to families growing cress on the windowsill for the first time; neighbourhoods setting up food co-ops or pantries; the food businesses supplying our city with excellent food; institutions making Veg Cities pledges and designing sustainable menus, and to everybody who has done something positive around food.”
Food Sense Wales is Sustainable Food Places’ national partner in Wales and supports Wales’ three current members - Food Cardiff, Food Vale and the Monmouthshire Food Partnership. It’s also supporting five new projects in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Powys, Blaenau Gwent, Torfaen and Carmarthenshire as they work to create their own partnership models and work towards becoming fully fledged members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network.
Food Sense Wales hopes that Cardiff’s success will encourage other areas to join in and to help lead the way in establishing and growing place-based infrastructure, contributing to the development of a ‘good food movement’ and wider community food strategies that will benefit the health, economy, sustainability and social prosperity of communities across Wales.
To read more, please visit www.foodsensewales.org.uk