The city of Cardiff has been granted a Gold Sustainable Food Places Award, recognising the success of its joined-up approach to building a sustainable and healthy food system.

Cardiff is only the fourth place in the UK to achieve Gold status, following Brighton & Hove, Bristol and Cambridge.

The award submission has been led by Food Cardiff, a city-wide ‘food partnership’ of individuals and organisations which connects the people and projects working to promote healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food across the city.

Cardiff gained the Silver Sustainable Food Places Award in 2021 and Food Cardiff initiated a city-wide engagement and consultation programme to create the Cardiff Good Food Strategy, with the goal of earning the Gold Award this year. The strategy set out five food goals – a healthy Cardiff; an environmentally sustainable Cardiff; a thriving local economy; a fair and connected food system; and an empowering food movement.

Now in its tenth year, Cardiff’s growing food partnership has evolved into a dynamic, strong and inclusive network of good food activists. Food Cardiff was co-founded by Cardiff & Vale Public Health Team and Cardiff Council in 2014. It is part of Food Sense Wales, which aims to influence how food is produced and consumed in Wales, ensuring that sustainable food, farming and fisheries are at the heart of a just, connected and prosperous food system.

Food Cardiff also has a strategy board that includes a range of members, including Cardiff Council, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, Cardiff University, Cardiff Farmers Markets, WWF Cymru, Action in Caerau and Ely as well as many others.

Pearl Costello, Food Cardiff coordinator, said, “This is a huge achievement for all of the many individuals, community groups, organisations and businesses who are part of the Food Cardiff network, and everyone in the city who has contributed to our Good Food movement.

“As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Food Cardiff, it’s great to have this external recognition of our success at a UK level. And to show the power of bringing together all of the people within the food system to collaborate for change – to increase access to healthy, affordable food, to bring communities together and tackle isolation, to support a more sustainable food system and ensure our local food economy can thrive.

“We are excited now to start the process of working with all of those partners on our plans to build on this Gold achievement and develop our next Good Food Cardiff strategy.” 

Cllr Julie Sangani said, “As the Cabinet Member entrusted with the Food Strategy in my portfolio and in my capacity as Chair of the Council’s Food Steering Group, I am immensely proud of Cardiff achieving the Gold Sustainable Food Places Award. We are Wales’ first Sustainable Food Place to have achieved Gold, Bronze and Silver awards – a title earned through the collective efforts of our collaborative partners, engaged community, and dedicated colleagues.

“Cardiff Council has been a pioneering force in the city’s Good Food Movement since Food Cardiff’s inception in 2014. Our solid commitment to building a sustainable food system has been a key aspect of our work, and we are delighted to have established a robust foundation upon which to grow, and create a food system that not only nourishes our community but also protects our environment and fosters a healthier future for generations to come.”

The Sustainable Food Places Award Scheme is based on the recognition that creating a more sustainable, healthy food system requires a connected approach, bringing together people working in public and private sector organisations throughout the system. It identifies six key areas of action to achieve fundamental food system change:

• Food Governance and Strategy: Taking a strategic and collaborative approach to good food governance and action 
• Good Food Movement: Building public awareness, active food citizenship and a local good food movement  
• Healthy Food for All: Tackling food poverty, diet related ill-health and access to affordable healthy food 
• Sustainable Food Economy: Creating a vibrant, prosperous, and diverse sustainable food economy 
• Catering and Procurement: Transforming catering and procurement and revitalising local supply chains 
• Food for the Planet: Tackling the climate and nature emergency through sustainable food and farming and an end to food waste. 

Leon Ballin, Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager and one of the judges for the Gold award said, “It’s only places that have been doing the sort of work that Food Cardiff has been doing for at least a decade that are able to achieve a gold award, and what particularly stands out in Cardiff is that there is a really strong, grassroots, good food movement here, where people are getting involved and the communities are really well represented. What’s more, there is also superb buy-in from the local authority and health board. To see the ways that they are coming together and working together in the Welsh capital, is pretty remarkable.”

Claire Beynon, Executive Director for Public Health for Cardiff & Vale University Health Board added, “I am delighted that our team and organisation have played a key part in Cardiff’s Gold Sustainable Food Places Award. The Cardiff & Vale Public Health Team was a co-founder of Food Cardiff in 2014 and we’re delighted to see how much has been achieved over the last ten years, and we remain firmly committed to ensuring that everybody in Cardiff has access to good food.”

Derek Walker, The Future Generations Commissioner for Wales said, “Food is a focus of my seven-year strategy, Cymru Can, because access to an affordable, healthy and sustainable diet is critical to the well-being of the people of Wales now and in the future. The achievement by Food Cardiff in growing a sustainable food movement, which brings together government, public health bodies, partner organisations, businesses and citizens, is a fantastic example of the action we need to see replicated across Wales. Congratulations to Cardiff on leading the way in growing its position as one of the UK’s most sustainable food cities. I’m calling on Welsh Government and the wider public sector to follow Cardiff and to develop long term strategies on food in order to achieve our long-term ambitions for the country as set out in the Well-being of Future Generations Act.”

Sustainable Food Places is a partnership programme led by the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. It is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund.

Examples of the Good Food movement in Cardiff, celebrated by the Gold Sustainable Food Places Award include:

The Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival

Every year since 2021, Cardiff celebrates the joy of growing, cooking and sharing good food through the Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival. Free activities are held in neighbourhoods across the city throughout September, in addition to a dedicated Good Food Cardiff Zone at the Amgueddfa Cymru Food Festival which welcomes more than 25,000 people. Over the past four annual festivals, 46 Food Cardiff member organisations have been involved, hosting more than 100 events and welcoming almost 8,000 attendees. More than 2,000 meals have been shared and more than 5,000 plants and seed kits have been distributed. Food Cardiff coordinates the festival and has secured and distributed almost £10k in small grants to support groups to run activities.

The Planet Card

Through the Bridging the Gap Programme, Food Cardiff and Sustain, plus a group of community members, farmers, market managers and dietitians worked on creating ‘big ideas’ for one or two pilot projects to run in Cardiff. This led to the development of the Planet Card, a collaboration between Cardiff Farmers Markets, Food Cardiff, and a group of organic growers, social enterprises and community organisations. The card, which has value of up to £11 per week – enabling holders to switch their normal weekly shop for fruit and vegetables to organically produced versions, without being left out of pocket, has been trialled with a group of 16 participants and will be rolled out to a further 120 households in late 2024.

Watch the Planet Card video here.

Courgette Pilot and Welsh Veg in Schools

An action in the Cardiff Good Food Strategy was to pilot an environmentally sustainable food procurement initiative by 2024. In 2022, Cardiff started the Courgette Pilot – an action research project to get agroecological Welsh vegetables into schools. Over the three weeks of Food and Fun, nearly 1 tonne of courgettes (from a farm less than 3 miles from Cardiff) went through the supply chain and were used in lunches and activities for 1,500 children across 29 Cardiff primary schools.

In 2023, the project became Welsh Veg in Schools and expanded to include more growers, areas, and activities like beetroot hummus making and a visit to Cardiff Salad Garden. Cardiff has continued taking part in the scheme in 2024, using Welsh organic vegetables in both summer and term-time meals.

Cardiff Council Food Strategy

Cardiff Council was one of the first UK authorities to publish its own Council Food Strategy, supporting Food Cardiff’s vision through 5 action areas. In July 2024 Cardiff Council passed a motion, which focused on ensuring that everyone has access to decent, healthy, sustainably produced food, and re-committed the Council’s support for the Cardiff Food Partnership and the aim for a Gold Sustainable Food Places Award.

The Motion also called on the Welsh Government to develop and implement a long-term, sustainable strategy for food using the Well-being of Future Generations Act’s Sustainable Development Principle, including the five ways of working.

Move More, Eat Well – Cardiff & Vale public sector and wider partnership

Move More, Eat Well is a Strategic Plan for all Cardiff & Vale public sector and wider partners to encourage, support and enable people to eat healthily and increase physical activity. 

Food Cardiff has been a key delivery mechanism for this plan, both strategically by being part of the implementation group and aligning priorities and shared vision, and by driving action such as projects around procurement, healthy advertising and community action.

For more information, please see the Gold Award highlights document, available here.