Bridgend has been awarded a Bronze Sustainable Food Places Award, recognising the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership (BSFP) for its leadership in promoting healthy, sustainable, and local food.
The award celebrates the partnership’s collaborative work to tackle food challenges from food poverty and diet-related ill-health to supporting local producers and reducing food waste.
The Sustainable Food Places Award is a national, evidence-based recognition and celebration of places taking a joined-up, holistic approach to good food. Bridgend’s Bronze Award reflects the strong foundations the partnership has built through collaboration across the county, uniting residents, community groups, schools, and food businesses to create a fairer, greener local food system.
Hosted by Bridgend County Borough Council and supported by Food Sense Wales, the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership was launched in early 2024 to bring together growers, businesses, educators, and community organisations. Together, they are creating a local food movement that supports health, climate action, and the economy.
Among the partnership’s early successes are initiatives helping to build a more connected, sustainable food community across Bridgend – one where healthy, affordable, and climate-friendly food is accessible to everyone:
- Bringing locally grown Welsh organic vegetables into school meals and the Food & Fun summer programme through the Welsh Veg in Schools pilot.
- Partnering with BAVO to launch a Community Food Network and distribute community food grants, supporting grassroots projects across the borough.
- Working with Cooking Together Wales to deliver hands-on cooking sessions that build cooking and nutrition skills across local communities.
- Most recently working in partnership with Cwm Taf Morgannwg Dietetic team to deliver Nutrition Skills for Life training across the county borough.
- Launching a Sustainable Food Economy Network with The Wellbeing Planner, connecting local food businesses and shortening supply chains.
- Redistributing surplus produce from B Leaf to community groups, ensuring good food doesn’t go to waste.
- Partnering with Tanio and Baobab Bach to deliver food education and sustainability workshops in schools.
- Collaborating with Slade Farm Organics to offer vegetable-growing courses that build community resilience, including piloting an innovative satellite schools project with Afon y Felin Primary where pupils learn more about food growing and establish their own growing space at school.
To mark the award and the next stage of its journey, the partnership has launched a new website: www.bridgendfoodpartnership.co.uk.
The site showcases local projects, resources, and events, and invites residents, schools, and businesses to join the movement for good food in Bridgend.
The announcement took place at Pencoed College during the seventh annual Wales Real Food & Farming Conference (WRFFC) – a national gathering celebrating sustainable food, farming, and community-led action across Wales.
Lauren Saunders, Sustainable Food Coordinator for the Bridgend Food Partnership, said:
“The way food is produced, distributed and shared impacts everything – from health and community wellbeing to climate and the local economy. This award is a fantastic recognition of how far we’ve come as a partnership, but it’s also a call to keep building momentum. By working together, we’re showing how powerful collaboration can be in creating a fairer, more resilient food system for Bridgend.”
Leon Ballin, Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, added:
“Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership 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, Bridgend has helped set a benchmark for others to follow. They should be very proud of the work they’ve been doing to transform our collective food culture and food system for the better.”
