As Food Cardiff looks forward to the development of a new strategy for the city’s growing good food movement, it is also evaluating successes so far and the initiatives and ideas that have made a high-level impact.

One example was the Food for our Future report published last year by the Future Generations Commissioner with support from Food Sense Wales. Taking a view across Wales of what’s working to improve local food systems and deliver against the well-being goals, the Commissioner outlined tried-and-tested policy levers that local authorities and public bodies could use.

These included:

• Governance: Setting a long-term vision that integrates food across all council services.
• Planning: Using the planning system to promote sustainable food production and restrict unhealthy food environments around schools.
• Procurement: Buying more local, healthy, and sustainable produce for schools and care homes.
• Increase access to food: Embedding affordable food access within wider poverty strategies through “cash-first” approaches.
• Promoting healthy diets: Restricting the advertising of high fat, salt, and sugar (HFSS) foods and supporting local and sustainable options.
• Food waste: Reducing waste through procurement monitoring and promoting food waste awareness.

As the first local authority in Wales to establish a dedicated food strategy, Cardiff features throughout the report for the work that has been pioneered by the Council and the Food Cardiff network.

It’s a timely reminder of what’s worked well, and the foundations on which we can build, as we all seek to build a fairer, healthier, and more resilient food future.

Examples from Cardiff included:

Establish a local authority food resilience strategy

• Cardiff Council was the first local authority in Wales to establish a Council food strategy
• Food Cardiff achieved Gold Sustainable Food Places status. Joint projects are helping to increase local and organic vegetables in primary school meals. The Cardiff Planet Card pilot is exploring how to support low income households to access healthy food.
• Cardiff Council has passed a Food Motion outlining the local authority’s commitment to a strategic approach to improve the local food system. It has also appointed a food champion in Cabinet and designated a council officer to coordinate food policies. And they have developed a Food Strategy Steering Group for officers from multiple departments to align food policies and report progress.

Increase access to food

• Cardiff Council is an accredited Real Living Wage employer.
• The Cardiff Food Hour has been a successful example of a programme which supports schools to provide healthy, sustainable meals and improve food culture.
• The Cardiff Planet Card, a fruit and veg voucher scheme, is supporting access to food and local food economies
• The annual Ask Cardiff survey is collecting information about the number of households experiencing food insecurity. 

Promoting healthy diets

• Cardiff Council has approved policy to restrict the promotion of foods high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) from all outdoor advertising spaces which they manage

Food waste

• Cardiff and Monmouthshire councils collaborated with Fair Share Cymru on the Redistribution Wales Kitchen Project where surplus food is being made into nutritionally balanced affordable meals and distributed to local community groups.