Together, stronger - The Wales Community Food Strategy to help improve our social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales

PHW food partnerships Swansea

“FOOD connects us. It touches upon every aspect of our daily lives, both individually and collectively. From farm to fork, the food system supports economic prosperity, our physical and mental health, and helps bring our communities together.”

Such is the belief of Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, and who is tasked with driving forward the Wales Community Food Strategy to help improve our social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales.

This means building relationships between local producers, businesses and the network of community initiatives to ensure more food bought in Wales is produced in Wales, whilst encouraging healthier food choices, tackling food poverty and supporting social inclusion through responsible production methods.

“The potential to obtain these outcomes and to maximise the benefits for our communities can only be realised through a collaborative, joined-up approach,” he explains. “We can achieve nothing on our own. We must also respect the diverse needs of communities across Wales and, through a place-based approach, seek to enable local activity that has been designed to meet local priorities.

“As a next step, I am commissioning a ministerial advisory group that will ensure the delivery of the objectives within the Wales Community Food Strategy, and establish an effective and productive partnership with our key stakeholders.”

You do not have to look very far for examples of such ideas being put into practice. Well-Fed, a social business based in Shotton offering services across much of north Wales, tick all the boxes, having initially been established as a partnership between Can Cook, Clwyd Alyn Housing Association and Flintshire County Council in 2019. The aim of the only ultra-processed free meal provider in Europe is to ensure everyone has access to good quality and fresh food, regardless of their income levels. A big part of their work is to help feed struggling households and they are committed to feeding anyone who finds it difficult to access nutritious food, with a particular focus on feeding hungry children.

Well-Fed’s 24-strong workforce help deliver a range of services, including commercial catering for care and extra care services; mealboxes delivered to homes in partnership with housing associations; meal centres created in partnership with local community organisations; mobile shops focused on more isolated areas; meal lockers allowing people to order and collect meals to cook at home; meal vending offering plastic-free machines for workplaces and food training delivered within local communities.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act is a central plank of the Community Food Strategy. Derek Walker, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales, highlights in his strategy ‘Cymru Can’ (2023-2030) that ‘from farm to fork, food is critical to achieving Wales’s well-being goals for the health of our people and our planet’.

RCT Food Partnership

An excellent example of such an approach is the RCT Food Partnership, an award-winning network of organisations and individuals passionate about healthy, sustainable, and affordable food for all. With members drawn from community groups, public bodies and food businesses from around the county, they want every person in Rhondda Cynon Taf to have access to affordable and nutritious food that is also good for the planet.

Members of the UK-wide Sustainable Food Places network and Sustainable Food Places Bronze award holders, they have been able to develop and increase sustainable solutions to strengthen the local food system, and help tackle the root causes of food poverty, while funding has allowed groups to explore new and innovative ideas for community food projects.

Additionally, the RCT Food Partnership have supported a local veg box scheme working to bring locally-grown, organic produce to residents, whilst also benefiting the local community through volunteering opportunities. Their funding has also been used to teach resilient food skills such as growing, cooking skills and how to feed a family on a budget.

The Well-being of Future Generations Act is at the forefront of the Welsh Government’s approach for considering how encouraging the supply of locally-sourced food in Wales can lead to opportunities for improving social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being. It can also combat food poverty with local community growing plans, more food co-operatives and community kitchens. Food Matters: Wales, outlines the food-related policies and the ways of working that form an overall strategic agenda for food and also describes how the Community Food Strategy contributes to the well-being objectives.

The Welsh Government’s vision for the Community Food Strategy is to work in partnership to promote and strengthen the local and community food system while increasing the availability and consumption of locally-sourced, healthier and sustainable food and inspiring improvements in well-being within our communities.

Among those picking up the gauntlet are Monmouthshire County Council who are formulating a Local Food Strategy to set a long-term vision for a fairer, greener, and healthier local food system focusing on areas where the council has direct influence such as public procurement, land management, community partnerships and grants.

The result is the shaping of a local food system which reduces food and diet inequality whilst responding to climate and nature emergencies. Key initiatives include community grants for horticulture, establishing affordable Food On Our Doorstep Clubs to reduce food waste and creating globally responsible, deforestation-free school meals.

The council also host the Monmouthshire Sustainable Food Partnership, to ensure involvement and collaboration around its strategic approach to food. This includes collaboration with community groups, Coleg Gwent, Brecon Beacons National Park Authority, Natural Resources Wales, NFU Cymru and Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.

Through this work the authority has incorporated sustainable food production and consumption into its well-being objectives which are to progress food policy integration and align food strategy with the aims of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

The achievement of the Welsh Government’s vision rests on a series of policy proposals under six objectives to give the framework around which Welsh Government, the public sector, key stakeholders and delivery partners can bring ideas and resources together for collective action. These are to ensure joined-up strategic thinking and leadership by enabling local food system coordination and action while strengthening food resilience through cohesive food communities built upon stronger, diverse local supply networks, more community growing and horticulture.

 Local Food Partnerships

The Welsh Government’s next step of the equation is to deliver representative, diverse and active local food networks and increase the number of collaborative community food projects. A sum of over £2m of funding has been committed in 2025-26 to further develop the network of Local Food Partnerships across Wales and deliver community food projects. Additionally, Welsh Government has committed to resource these partnerships until the end of March 2028.

The long-term objective is to encourage Local Food Partnerships to nurture plans, as well as strategic relationships with public bodies while facilitating new local supply opportunities. Project funding will also support Local Food Partnerships to build capacity, develop targeted food projects and collaborate to address infrastructure challenges.

Food Sense Wales, the delivery arm of Sustainable Food Places for Wales, will oversee this process through a central supporting role for the Local Food Coordinators, including one-to-one and peer support, encouraging the development of local and regional food projects and monitoring best practise and evaluating impact. In the long run it is important to move away from a dependence on food banks, and support community food initiatives to procure food from a more diverse range of sources, beyond the re-distribution of surplus food.

Ongoing grant funding objectives for Local Food Partnerships will include a focus on encouraging the local availability, access and consumption of healthier and nutritious food for all, including for those with protected characteristics, as well as distribution of surplus or excess food. An example of this work is Food Cardiff who have already engaged with communities in south Cardiff through multi-cultural food pantries.

Since its establishment over a decade ago, Food Cardiff has consistently worked in collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders, and its Sustainable Food Places Gold Award in 2024 is a testament to the partnership’s success in bringing together sectors to drive meaningful and strategic change in the capital’s food system. Food Cardiff operates through co-ordination, strategy, and operation, overseen by the Strategy Board composed of core members from organisations such as Cardiff Council and the Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, as well as representatives from third sector organisations and professionals and citizens who are part of the local sustainable food movement.

The wider partnership is made up of over 250 members which includes businesses, community organisations and individuals whose collective efforts are aligned with the Good Food Strategy, collaboratively developed to guide the city’s long-term food sustainability and access goals. Food Cardiff also co-ordinates sub-groups such as the Cardiff Community Food Collective, which is made up of almost 30 local community food projects. Cardiff Community Food Collective presents a collective voice for change to tackle the root causes of food poverty; and works collectively to deliver projects, for example on securing resilient sources of food supplies.

Welsh Government has set food targets to reduce edible food waste by 60 per cent by 2030 and communities can play a key role in curbing the waste of edible food. How? By supporting the effective management of the supply chain, preventing excess food being thrown away at home and re-distributing the surplus.

And lastly, given our country’s high rates of obesity, The Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales strategy supports people to eat a healthy balanced diet by increasing understanding and making healthier options more accessible and available The strategy and its delivery plans set out the key steps to ensure our communities have neighbourhood access to healthier foods through a broad range of outlets, including out-of-home venues, hot food takeaways and public sector settings. Local health boards are encouraged to build a systems-based approach into their strategies alongside governance structures to strengthen collaborative responses to healthy eating. These include innovative approaches to healthier food within settings such as schools and leisure centres.

By restricting the promotion of high fat, sugar and salt products, the Food (Promotion and Presentation) (Wales) Regulations 2025 will move the balance of product promotions away from less healthy products within our food stores, while options to reduce advertising of less healthy foods on public-owned sites, following the example set by Transport for Wales, are being explored.

However, in the words of the Deputy First Minister, such ambitions can only be achieved through sustained team-work if ultimate, long-term objectives are to be attained. We can achieve nothing on our own – we are all in this together.