Swansea wins coveted Sustainable Food Place Bronze award

Swansea has won a prestigious Sustainable Food Places award. The award recognises Bwyd Abertawe’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 disappearance of family farms and the loss of independent food retailers.

Bwyd Abertawe Steering Group are very pleased with the partnership’s sustainable food movement and its collective efforts so far.

Bwyd Abertawe regularly updates membership, by including their respective sustainable food activities and projects via its quarterly e-Newsletter, in-person networks and social media. This year, the partnership has been focussed on its two UK Shared Prosperity Funded projects – Growing Volunteers and Access to Local Produce, which enables urban based citizens to access food growing and cooking skills at rural Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) sites. The partnership has also been working on Mawr Agriculture and Farmer Engagement and Needs Analysis with consultants Communitas Cymru, which culminated with a Swansea Farmers meeting at Castell Howell in Octiber.

Dawn Lyle, Bwyd Abertawe Chairperson and Co-Founder of 4theRegion, said:

“It has been an exciting year since Bwyd Abertawe launched Swansea’s Food Charter at the Swansea Conference in March 2023. Bwyd Abertawe has grown to over 500 members, pulling together in many wonderful and different ways to make steady steps towards sustainable food for Swansea. Thank you to all involved!”

Leon Ballin, the Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, said:

“Bwyd Abertawe 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, Bwyd Abertawe has helped to set a benchmark for the other 100+ 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.”

For more information please visit www.bwydabertawe.org.uk or email Mary Duckett: bwydabertawe@gmail.com