A partnership project in Wales is demonstrating how the public sector can source locally produced food - benefiting both the environment and local prosperity. The first food deliveries to a public sector care home and restaurant in Carmarthenshire have proved a success for the project.
Collaborating with Sustainable Food Places Officers in two areas, the Sustainable Food Procurement Hubs project works with local, small-scale growers to aggregate supply and provide produce to the public sector whilst meeting ease, cost and sustainability requirements.
Project partners from Social Farms & Gardens, Open Food Network, Cultivate, Development Trusts Association Wales and Foothold Cymru, aim to demonstrate that the public sector can procure efficiently from local producers using methods that benefit the natural environment and local people. The project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government to pilot two new procurement food hubs in Carmarthenshire and North Powys.
The hub, based in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, has aggregated vegetables from a number of local growers and dispatched their high-quality produce to Awel Tywi Care Home and Yr Orsaf restaurant at Pembrey Country Park. Both venues are owned and managed by Carmarthenshire County Council who have been very supportive in the aim to increase the nutritional value of the food they serve.
Photo: The delivery van being loaded at the hub
Helen Evans from Foothold Fruit & Veg Hub has said:
‘Just a couple of weeks in and the feedback has already been so positive – the chefs have praised the quality of the veg and even commented on how wonderful it smelt. They loved the variety and colour of the produce, especially the tomatoes & chard.’
Photos: Alex Nicholls of Banc Organics (one of the Hub's suppliers) testing the quality & nutrional density of their veg and inspecting her produce before dispatch.
Yr Orsaf’s are keen to promote the fact that their meals are made with ingredients grown nearby and therefore less travelled, nutritious and served within just a couple of days of being picked. Awel Tywi care home has a number of residents over 100, including the oldest person in Wales at 110 who is enjoying eating ingredients farmed in the area she has always lived. The hub is building on this enthusiastic start and already planning deliveries to more public sector venues soon.
Photo: Part of the first delivery being loaded into the van
Sustainable Food Procurement Hubs
Working with partners from Social Farms & Gardens, Open Food Network, Cultivate, Development Trusts Association Wales and Foothold Cymru, we aim to demonstrate that the public sector CAN procure efficiently from local producers using methods that benefit the natural environment and local prosperity.
This project has received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities - Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government to pilot two new procurement food hubs in Carmarthenshire and North Powys.
