Vale of Glamorgan wins coveted Sustainable Food Places Silver award

The Vale of Glamorgan has won a prestigious Sustainable Food Places award. The award recognises Food Vale’s work to promote healthy, sustainable and local food and to tackle some of today’s greatest social challenges; from food poverty and diet-related ill-health to the struggles faced by local food producers and businesses and the decline in understanding of where our food comes from.

The award recognises in particular the success of the annual Vale Food Trail and recently launched Vale Food Producers Directory in promoting the work of local producers and locally produced food.

It also highlights the vital work being done to tackle food poverty first piloted with the Llantwit Food Project and now being rolled out to the rest of the Vale.

The Food Vale partnership brings together more than 150 individuals and organisations ranging from catering companies to schools, as well as individual producers and food businesses.

The work of the Vale of Glamorgan Council also features prominently in the award submission. Most notably through the collaboration between Council-owned Big Fresh Catering Company, local schools and wholesalers around the Welsh Veg in Schools scheme which is getting locally produced organic vegetables into school dinners. In September the Council became the first local authority in Wales to restrict unhealthy food advertising. The Council is also working on scoping an Agri-Food Hub to help support local supply chains. The Council's commitment to becoming a Living Wage Accredited employer and tackling inequalities in pay and performance in relation to managing waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy is also mentioned.

The award was presented to Food Vale Co-ordinator Louise Denham by Derek Walker, Future Generations Commissioner for Wales during a special ceremony as part of the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference in Bridgend.

Food Vale was Wales’ second food partnership when established in 2017. It has been led by Louise Denham since 2020.

The Sustainable Food Places Award is a national, evidence-based recognition and celebration of places taking a joined-up, holistic approach to sustainable and healthy food. Awardees have demonstrated activity and impact across their food system by the food partnership and their stakeholders to create a local ‘Good Food Movement’. This is recognition of the excellent work of the food partnership and of stakeholders across the area.

Louise Denham, Food Vale Coordinator, said: “This award recognises all the great work currently being done by the partnership to make the Vale of Glamorgan one of the most sustainable food places in Wales. It is a credit to all of those working to achieve this.

“The work of Food Vale has grown considerably in recent years and now touches the lives of thousands of people. Things like our annual Vale Food Trail and our successful scheme to connect schools with local farmers give more people the opportunity to each locally sourced healthy produce.

“Elsewhere our holistic, joined-up approach to tackling the root causes of household food insecurity through the Llantwit Food Access Project is helping feed families in a way that also upholds the dignity of our communities.

Leon Ballin, the Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, said: “Food Vale has shown just what can be achieved when creative and committed people work together to make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where they live. While there is still much to do and many challenges to overcome, Food Vale has helped to set a benchmark for the other 120+ members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network to follow. They should be very proud of the work that they have been doing to transform our collective food culture and food system for the better.”

Food Sense Wales is one of the 6 UK partners leading Sustainable Food Places and supports Wales’ 13 members. Having been key in establishing and nurturing food partnerships as part of its work leading on the Sustainable Food Places network in Wales, Food Sense Wales now also supports Welsh Government with the development of Wales’ wider network of 22 local food partnerships – one in each of Wales’ local authority areas - promoting innovation and best practice in healthy and sustainable food systems.

“We’re delighted to have presented seven of Wales’ Sustainable Food Places with awards and so pleased to have welcomed another two new members into the network,” says Pearl Costello, Sustainable Food Places Manager at Food Sense Wales.

“We’re extremely proud of the work going on across Wales, with it being the only UK nation to have food partnerships in every part of the country. The growing Sustainable Food Places membership, as well as the increasing number of award-winning places in Wales is testament to the hard work and collaboration happening across the country.”