Bwyd Powys Food has won a prestigious Sustainable Food Places award.

The award recognises Bwyd Powys Food’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.

Bywd Powys Food is the Sustainable Food Partnership for Powys, working to create food systems change. Their vision is of “Good food for POWYS! Where local, sustainable and healthy food supports communities, its people and the environment.”

The partnership is hosted by Cultivate and includes: Powys County Council, Powys Teaching Health Board, Social Farms & Gardens, Our Food 1200, Bannau Brycheiniog National Park, Black Mountains College, Natural Resources Wales, Neath Port Talbot Group of Colleges, and Mach Maethlon.

The Sustainable Food Places Award is a national, evidence-based recognition and celebration of places taking a joined-up, holistic approach to sustainable and healthy food. Awardees have demonstrated activity and impact across their food system by the food partnership and their stakeholders to create a local ‘Good Food Movement’.

This is recognition of the excellent work of the food partnership and of stakeholders across the area.

Bwyd Powys Food works together to deliver on the Powys Food Strategy and Action Plan from 2024 to 2028. Actions from the plan that have already been achieved include joining the Welsh Veg in Schools programme, getting Welsh, organic vegetables into school meals in Powys; supporting the Future Farms project, enabling new entrants farmers to access land for horticulture farming using the Powys County Council farm estate. Boyd Powys Food has also launched the Powys Food Map as part of the Food Strategy and Action Plan, showing the food system across Powys, from community growing to emergency food provision, local food retailers and food events across the county. They have piloted subsidised veg boxes for low income families, coupled with cooking classes and shared meals in Brecon and Newtown as part of the strategy too.

Richard Edwards, chair of Bwyd Powys Food, said: “We are delighted to have achieved this bronze award in recognition of all the hard work of all the partners in creating food system change in Powys.”

Leon Ballin, the Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, told The Brecon and Radnor Express: “Bwyd Powys Food 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 Powys Food has helped to set a benchmark for the other 120+ 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.”

To find out more about Bwyd Powys Food and become part of the good food movement in Powys, sign up to the Powys Food Charter.