Food Sense Wales presents Ffres! – Wales Festival of Veg
Ffres! Wales’s first Festival of Veg will take place from June 5th to the 18th and will celebrate growing, eating, on the ground action and enjoyment of all things veg in Wales.
Co-ordinated by Food Sense Wales – an organisation working to influence and impact how food is produced and consumed in Wales – the festival will highlight the incredible work that’s taking place across Wales’ gardens, farms, communities, organisations and businesses.
Ffres! will bring together projects and partners from across Wales – from community growing projects to edible horticulture businesses; food writers to restauranteurs; and social media
influencers to wholesalers – and will provide an opportunity to showcase the excellent work they’re all doing to promote the growing and eating of vegetables.
The festival will feature a blend of online events and social media content and will offer those taking part the chance to share their stories as well as their passion for veg. Anyone interested in joining in will also be able to follow the festival on social media by using #Ffres21.
There’ll be a focus and discussion around cooking and accessing more veg; the need to grow more veg; exploring the health benefits of eating more veg; looking at how food and veg can offer ways to bring people together as well as connecting people with vegetables – where they come from; their heritage, and the way they’re grown.
“With 2021 being the UN International Year of Fruit and Veg and with COP26 taking place in Glasgow this November, we felt like this was the right time to organise a celebration of vegetables in Wales,” says Katie Palmer, Programme Manager at Food Sense Wales.
“In terms of public health, our diets are leading to high levels of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other diet-related disease – and we all need to eat more veg. Food Sense Wales delivers the Peas Please programme in Wales, which explores the levers along the supply chain which have the potential to increase vegetable consumption in a sustainable manner, and we recognise that in order to support consumers to make healthier choices, we need to see changes across our food system. We’ve also recently supported five small horticulture business to help them to increase veg production, enabling them to provide even more veg to diverse communities across Wales.
“Food Sense Wales delivers several food-related programmes across Wales – many as part of UK partnerships – helping to increase participation, awareness and engagement in food related policy and activity,” adds Katie. “We take a systems approach to food and farming, forging strong working relationships with public, private and civil society organisations in Wales, and this is why I’m really pleased that Food Sense Wales is curating Ffres! It’s a great opportunity to showcase the work of dedicated and enthusiastic individuals, groups, businesses and organisations – all of whom are working really hard to champion vegetables, helping not only to benefit people’s health but the environment too.”
The Ffres! festival will culminate with the Wales Peas Please Veg Summit which is part of a UK-wide series that will explore the role of veg as a part of a transition towards healthy and sustainable diets. The series will showcase examples of best practice; consider ways in which policymakers can support the transition, and celebrate all things veg.
The Wales Peas Please Summit will consist of two events – the first focusing on horticulture policy and investment, with the second exploring the food environment.
Ffres! also coincides with Veg Power and ITV’s Eat Them to Defeat Them – a campaign supported by Food Sense Wales that aims to increase veg consumption amongst children using advertising and marketing to increase demand. This year, around 150 schools in Wales are taking part in Veg Power’s schools programme which is also taking place in June.
To find out more about the festival, please visit the Ffres! Eventbrite page or the Food Sense Wales website.
You can also follow @foodsensewales on Twitter and Facebook for lots of veg related content and use #Ffres21 to follow the festival which takes place between June 5th and the 18th.
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