Food Sense Wales Newsletter - Spring 2025

Welcome to Food Sense Wales' Spring round-up featuring news, useful snippets of information and links to events and resources. 

If you have any relevant news you'd like to share with us about your area of work, or have any queries that you think we can help with, please let us know by emailing foodsensewales@wales.nhs.uk 

News

A Milestone for Food Policy in Wales

This week marks a significant milestone for food policy in Wales with the release of two important publications – the Future Generations Commissioner’s Annual Report and the Welsh Government’s Community Food Strategy. These documents lay the groundwork for catalysing and enabling the growing good food movement in Wales to progress the social, cultural, economic and environmental well-being of Wales through food.

Both publications emphasise the pivotal role of Local Food Partnerships in shaping Wales’ food future, and highlight the way that innovative initiatives like Welsh Veg in Schools, can harness the potential of public procurement in creating a more sustainable food system.

Food Sense Wales has long been at the forefront of nurturing local food partnerships across Wales as part of Sustainable Food Places and in collaboration with communities, and with Welsh Government, a network of strengthened and robust partnerships has been developed.  A newly published status report offers a snapshot of the current landscape, highlighting best practices across the 22 Local Food Partnerships in Wales and sharing feedback from partnership members.

In 2023, Wales’ Future Generations Commissioner published Cymru Can – a strategy for 2023- 2030 outlining his long-term vision and announcing the food system as his first area of focus. The Commissioner has since been working with Food Sense Wales, Public Service Boards and Public Bodies to integrate sustainable food policies into their well-being plans, with a particular emphasis on community food plans that foster change at a local level.

“It’s fantastic to see the Future Generations Commissioner’s report advocating for a host of food related actions, including the development of a National Food Resilience Plan; the continued support for Food Partnerships as well as further support for horticulture and Food Literacy,” says Katie Palmer, Founder and Head of Sense Wales.

“The Office of the Future Generations Commissioner has put significant resource into food and we are aligning our work on Food Partnerships to support them as they develop advice to Public Bodies on Food. This work has been triangulated with Welsh Government’s Community Food Strategy, which has also been published today.

“Local Food Partnerships have been recognised in both the Commissioner’s report and the Community Food Strategy as a vital force for bringing together stakeholders, policies and initiatives, enabling local actors to work collaboratively to create and deliver a shared vision and strategy for a more sustainable, just, and resilient food system,” continues Katie.  “Food Sense Wales is delighted to see the important work of Local Food Partnerships being recognised and look forward to seeing how their further development can positively impact our food system in Wales and build much needed resilience for the future,” adds Katie.

Food Sense Wales also coordinates the pioneering Welsh Veg in Schools initiative, a participatory action research project aimed at increasing the use of organic Welsh-grown produce in schools. Last week, a new report was published detailing the project’s impact and its future steps. The report highlights the potential for 25% of all vegetables used in primary school meals in Wales to be locally grown and organic by 2030.

By leveraging the market opportunity created by the Welsh Government’s Universal Free school meal policy, and by supporting public bodies to meet their statutory requirements, Welsh Veg in Schools is catalysing organic veg production in Wales and building resilience for the future.

“This work is crucial if public bodies are serious about meeting their obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act whilst supporting local communities and building resilience against future shocks and climate change,” adds Katie Palmer.

“I’m really proud of the work that the Welsh Veg in Schools has achieved and we’re so pleased to see it used as an exemplar in both the Future Generation’s Commissioner’s annual report as well as the Community Food Strategy,” she continues.

“As a team, we are incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far, but we know there is still much work to do.  This work is a huge collective endeavour and its success is a testament to the collaborative energy and the investment of multiple stakeholders."

Read more about our Local Food Partnerships and our Welsh Veg in Schools reports further down in this newsletter.

BBC Radio 4: Farming Today

Katie Palmer, Founder and Head of Food Sense Wales was on BBC Radio 4's Farming Today programme on Wednesday, April 30th discussing the Community Food Strategy.  

BBC Radio 4: The Food Programme

Katie was also a guest on BBC Radio 4's The Food Programme on Friday, May 2nd, discussing public procurement and our Welsh Veg in Schools project.

Local Food Partnerships Status Report 2025

On April 29th, Food Sense Wales published our Local Food Partnerships Status report providing a snapshot a snapshot of the current landscape, highlighting best practices across the 22 Local Food Partnerships in Wales and sharing feedback from partnership members.

As Pearl Costello, Sustainable Food Places Manager at Food Sense Wales says:

"A good food movement is happening all across Wales. Actors include citizens, farmers, community groups, local businesses, public bodies, charities and many others all working on initiatives to enable Wales’ population to have equal access to food which is good for people and planet. This grassroots momentum has rapidly gained traction over the past few years, accelerated by the local food systems infrastructure pioneered by Sustainable Food Places and the 22 Local Food Partnerships in Wales and supported by Welsh Government."

We produced a series of case studies and accompanying videos that you can watch by visiting our website

We also produced a video explaining what food partnerships are and what they do.  You can watch it here:

Tonnes of Change: Welsh Veg in Schools Report

With the right planning and with significant investment in infrastructure, around 25% of all veg in schools across Wales could be Welsh organic by 2030.  This is the conclusion of a report published by Food Sense Wales that notes the findings of the Welsh Veg in Schools participatory action research pilot, and documents the initiative’s impact since its inception in 2023.

Furthermore, the report also finds that simply adding 3.3p per meal per day to the price paid by Local Authorities and Welsh Government would allow for 2 portions of local organic veg to be included seasonally and would incentivise the following benefits:

• 901 tonnes purchased would provide £2.21 million direct to Welsh producers with a multiplier of 3.7 to give an estimated £8.2 million in social, economic and environmental benefit
• £552,500 investment in infrastructure
• Increased capacity to supply and increased average farm income in Wales
• More resilience in the supply chain
• 74.3 FTE jobs on Welsh farms
• 50 hectares of organic veg
• 226 tonnes CO₂e saving
• 35% increase in birdlife in fields
• Reduced reliance on imports from countries at high risk of water scarcity

Welsh Veg in Schools is a collaborative effort to supply organic, locally grown vegetables to schools across Wales.  It is co-ordinated by Food Sense Wales and works with partners that include Castell Howell, Farming Connect Horticulture as well as a host of enthusiastic growers.

By leveraging the market opportunity that the Welsh Government’s Universal Free school meal policy creates, and by supporting public bodies to meet their statutory requirements, Welsh Veg in Schools is catalysing organic veg production in Wales and building resilience for the future.  This work is crucial if public bodies are serious about meeting their obligations under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act whilst supporting local communities and building resilience against future shocks and climate change.

We published a series of reports documenting the findings.  You can read them by clicking on the relevant links below

UK Local Food Growth Plan

Earlier this month, a UK Local Food Growth Plan was published - an ambitious, collaborative action plan to expand and diversify the farmer-led, sustainable, local food sector.

This work is a culmination of two years’ research and consultation with food supply chain stakeholders working at place-based, nations and UK-wide scales.

The Plan outlines a framework of actions for local and mayoral authorities, national governments and food and farming organisations to grow local and agroecological food supply chains.

The Plan also suggests establishing a mandate and funding for a Food Partnership in every local authority in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, building on the approach taken in Wales - ensuring sufficient local budgets and resources for partnerships to deliver effectively.

The Food Systems Talk

Katie Palmer, Head of Food Sense Wales recently took part in a Food Systems Talk on “Transforming food systems from within. The role of consciousness and inner development for regenerative and equitable food systems”.  These Food Systems Talks are jointly organized by the UN Issue-based Coalition on Sustainable Food Systems (IBC-SFS) and the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA). 

The Food Systems Talks were launched last year by the IBC-SFS in the context of the UN Food Systems Summit, as an opportunity to increase awareness on how food systems are interlinked in all three dimensions of sustainability, and why a food systems transformation is necessary to achieve healthy people and a healthy planet. 

The Talks are organized as a thirty-minute interview with a renowned speaker to showcase solutions and good practices on a theme which could be inspiring to actioning the transformation of our food systems.   

This episode of the Food Systems Talk will shed a light on the work of the Conscious Food Systems Alliance (CoFSA), an initiative convened by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 

The Talk features an interview with Thomas Legrand, Lead Technical Advisor of the Conscious Food Systems Alliance, as the moderator and facilitator of the talk, alongside CoFSA members Christine Wamsler and Katie Palmer.

This Food System Talk aims to raise awareness on the importance of consciousness and inner development in achieving and contributing towards food systems transformations.   

Events

Food and Housing Connections Event: May 22nd

Food Sense Wales and Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning are organising an event to look at Food and Housing Connections.

Food is integral to our wellbeing, as is access to a good home. This event will be held on May 22nd at YMa in Pontypridd and will explore how social housing’s vital interventions in communities can connect with ambitious national work changing how food is produced, consumed and distributed.

• How can the power of food help social housing providers meet their goals?
• How can housing associations’ connections with food systems enhance residents’ wellbeing?
• What would housing designed for community food security look like?
• What partnerships will enable communities to enjoy food better for human and planetary health?

Housing associations are already delivering progress around food: creating spaces for growing, switching procurement pathways, improving tenants’ cooking skills. But initiatives remain piecemeal, with much focus on emergency food aid rather than intervening to prevent household hunger. Meanwhile, Wales has rich experience and ambitions around helping the nation eat better. This expertise can inspire and support housing associations to deliver change through food.

This workshop aims to foster housing associations’ contributions to more just and resilient food systems in Wales, by bringing together three communities of experts:

• practitioners in social housing,
• actors shaping sustainable food places, and
• researchers specialist in food system transformation and housing.

Participants will exchange ideas and make connections, working towards a shared ambition for putting food at the heart of healthy social housing. They will identify opportunities for collective progress, and suggest how they can best be supported in future.

This event is supported by the Learned Society of Wales Grant Scheme.

It is organised by Food Sense Wales & School of Geography and Planning Cardiff University

Resources

For a full list of useful food-related reports and documents you can visit the Resources page on the Food Sense Wales website.