Brackla independent care home, The White House, has enlisted the help of Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership to tackle the challenge of feeding residents healthier food on a tight budget.
Staff at The White House regularly cook for up to 20 people at a time, including both staff and residents, which can be a challenge!
Enlisting support from regular partner, the Cookalong Clwb, the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership has delivered four sessions with The White House team, working through the menu, adapting dishes, creating new meals from scratch and introducing more sustainable ingredients.
Deputy Manager of The White House, Ellen Betts, made the initial contact to Bridgend Food Partnership.
She said,
“We really wanted to boost the staff’s cooking skills and support them to be able to offer a wider variety of healthy foods to residents, while being mindful of budgets. They’ve really enjoyed the cooking session and have given us great feedback – and they’re growing in confidence in the kitchen.
“The latest meal we tried out with the Cookalong Club was a bean chilli – that involved reducing food waste by not peeling the carrots, which caused quite a lot of discussion also helped demonstrate how small changes can save waste, and time.”
After the sessions, the staff at The White House have now built up a collection of accessible recipes that they feel confident they can recreate for their own team and their residents, saving money and time in the months to come.
The Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership, hosted by Bridgend County Borough Council, was launched in early 2024, and brings together residents, growers, businesses and community organisations to build a fairer, healthier and more sustainable local food system. It is part of a growing movement of local food partnerships supported by Food Sense Wales, which aims to ensure “good food for all” by addressing issues like food insecurity, sustainable supply chains and local economic resilience.
Since forming, the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership has been mapping the county’s food system and uniting local efforts through a range of projects that link food, health, education and the environment.
Among its early successes:
- The partnership has worked with schools to bring locally grown, Welsh organic vegetables into the Food & Fun summer programme and primary school meals through the Welsh Veg in Schools pilot.
- In partnership with BAVO (Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations), it has launched a Community Food Network and distributed community food grants, supporting grassroots food projects across the borough.
- Cooking Together Wales has delivered hands-on community cooking classes, helping families and residents build confidence with healthy, affordable meals.
- A new Sustainable Food Economy Network, delivered with The Wellbeing Planner, is connecting local food businesses and exploring new ways to shorten supply chains and support local producers.
- Surplus produce grown by B Leaf in Bridgend is now being redistributed to community groups, ensuring good food doesn’t go to waste.
- Educational work with Tanio and Baobab Bach has taken food sustainability into schools – from food-waste workshops to student-led campaigns such as Litchard Primary School’s ‘Deforestation-Free Pizza’ initiative.
- Partnerships with Slade Farm Organics have given residents and local school pupils the chance to take part in vegetable-growing courses, and farm-to-fork education projects, building food skills and community resilience.
This collaborative effort is shaping a more joined-up local food network – one that connects growers, eaters, educators and policy-makers to make healthy, sustainable food the easy choice for everyone in Bridgend.
Building on its first two years of engagement and research, the Partnership is soon to launch its Sustainable Food Strategy which will guide local action on health, climate and the economy through food.
The strategy will bring together insight from community workshops, county-wide food surveys and local stakeholder events, such as the inaugural Bridgend Food Summit, held earlier this month.
