Bwyd Sir Gâr Food is Carmarthenshire’s local food partnership and aims to develop a thriving, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient local food system. It brings together partners from a range of different sectors to help tackle a range of social, economic and environmental issues, striving to ensure good food for all.
Key partners in Carmarthenshire include:
Carmarthenshire County Council
Hywel Dda University Health Board
Natural Resources Wales
Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services (CAVS)
The food partnership’s activity is overseen by Augusta Lewis, the Sustainable Food Places co-ordinator and is supported by a steering group made up of representatives from the key partners.
Carmarthenshire Food Network was established by the Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services (CAVS) to address concerns around access to food and to co-ordinate emergency food provision during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was managed by the Community Volunteering Development Officer, funded by the Welsh Assembly Government’s Transformational Change funding.
November 2021
Carmarthenshire Food Network Assistant appointed
A collaborative steering group was formed and the group successfully secured funding through the Wales Poverty Alleviation Fund enabling the appointment a Carmarthenshire Food Network Assistant.
August 2021
Bwyd Sir Gâr Food established
Five cluster groups were established to foster a more joined up grassroots food system inspired by the Sustainable Food Places framework and a mapping of the county’s food system was undertaken. This led to the formation of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food. The Carmarthenshire Food Network continued to support grassroots initiatives.
June 2022
Sustainable Food Places Network membership
With the support of Food Sense Wales, Bwyd Sir Gâr Food was awarded membership of the Sustainable Food Places network. As a result of grant funding from the network, a Sustainable Food Places Coordinator for Carmarthenshire was appointed, hosted by one of the steering group members, Social Farms & Gardens.
February 2023
Food Developments
As Bwyd Sir Gâr Food grew, it started to become involved in wider food systems projects. This included a pilot programme exploring local and sustainable public procurement. At the same time, a full-time Food Development Officer was also appointed by Carmarthenshire County Council to help shape a strategic approach to food at the Public Services Board level.
Additional Funding
With funding from the Welsh Government’s Ministry of Social Justice’s Local Food Partnership Development Grant, Bwyd Sir Gâr Food was able to deliver a community-level project to enable better access to good, nutritious food.
Food Systems Development Project
With more and more food-related activity happening across the county, Bwyd Sir Gâr Food applied for and secured UK Shared Prosperity Funding for a Food System Development Project. Building on its existing work, this funding has created new jobs and also supports the continued employment of both the Sustainable Food Places Coordinator and Carmarthenshire Food Network Officer.
December 2023
Bronze Sustainable Food Places award
Carmarthenshire was awarded the prestigious Bronze Sustainable Food Places award in recognition of its commitment to building a thriving, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient county-wide food system.
Summer 2024
Launch of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food brand and website
Working with a team of Carmarthenshire based communications and creative professionals, a new brand has been launched; a new website developed and a series of films and photographs have also been commissioned. The new acorn logo represents growth, renewal and a sustainable food system that’s supported by our varied landscape. It also references our local heritage and mythology.
Food Systems Development Marketing and Communications Officer
Alongside Augusta, Carwyn and Lowri, there’s a large group of people who help set the direction of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food’s work. These are the people who make up the food partnership’s steering group. Many of these people are involved in our Food Systems Development Project and you can read more about the work and the individuals involved here.
Members of the Bwyd Sir Gâr Food Steering Group representing a range of organisations including Carmarthenshire County Council, Hywel Dda University Health Board, Natural Resources Wales, Carmarthenshire Association of Voluntary Services (CAVS), Cook 24, Social Farms & Gardens, Food Sense Wales and Castell Howell.
Our mission
Bwyd Sir Gâr Food aims to create a healthier, sustainable, and fairer local food system through a place-based, partnership-driven approach.
Our vision
Co-creating a local food system fit for future generations that produces, promotes and provides affordable, healthy and sustainable food for all.
Our Values
EMPOWERING
Encouraging stakeholders, including individuals and communities, to get involved, become active food citizens and feel a sense of pride and ownership in their
COLLABORATIVE
Developing and maintaining positive working and strategic relationship with stakeholders – public, private and third sector organisations – as well as individuals and communities to help shape and create a more sustainable and prosperous food system for Carmarthenshire.
INCLUSIVE
Reaching out to communities across Carmarthenshire and engaging with them in relevant, appropriate and culturally sensitive ways.
ACCESSIBLE
Ensuring we reach people of all ages and backgrounds across Carmarthenshire and actively encourage widespread participation in our activities.
INNOVATIVE
We are forward thinking and approach projects and project delivery in an innovative and fresh way.
Learn more about food systems by watching this short explainer video:
Sustainable Food Places
Bwyd Sir Gâr Food is proud to be a member of the Sustainable Food Places network and in 2022, Carmarthenshire was awarded a prestigious Bronze Sustainable Food Places award in recognition of its commitment to building a thriving, sustainable, inclusive, and resilient county-wide food system.
Augusta Lewis is the Sustainable Food Places co-ordinator for Bwyd Sir Gâr Food and leads the partnership’s work throughout the county.
Sustainable Food Places is one of the UK’s fastest-growing social movements. Its network brings together pioneering food partnerships from towns, cities, boroughs, districts and counties across the UK that are driving innovation and best practice on all aspects of healthy and sustainable food. The SFP network shows that a local food partnership can help drive a fundamental shift in its local food system and become a hub for a rapidly growing good food movement of active and engaged citizens.
Changing the food system demands a systems approach. This means having a vision and plan to achieve change across a breadth of different but connected food issues. It also requires local people and organisations working at all levels, and across all parts of the food system.
The SFP framework for action identifies 6 key issues that should be addressed together to achieve fundamental food system change.
For further information on Sustainable Food Places, please visit the website.
Sustainable Food Places is a partnership programme led by the Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming. It is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The National Lottery Community Fund.
Food partnerships bring together partners from a range of different sectors to help tackle a range of social, economic and environmental issues as they strive to ensure good food for all. Partners usually include public bodies such as Health Boards and Local Authorities as well as other dedicated stakeholders such as voluntary organisations, charities, food business, retailers, wholesalers, growers and farmers.
Food Partnerships build resilience in local food networks through the co-ordination of on the ground, food-related activity, helping to tackle the root-causes of food poverty. They are also key to building and retaining wealth in Wales – economically, environmentally and socially – and helps to promote collaboration and inclusivity.
Bwyd Sir Gar Food is one of 22 food partnerships across Wales and one of 10 Sustainable Food Places members in Wales. Bwyd Sir Gâr Food is now busy growing a place-based infrastructure in Carmarthenshire, helping to develop a ‘good food movement’ as well as supporting wider community food initiatives that benefit the health, economy, sustainability and social prosperity of local communities.
For more information on Food Partnerships, please visit Food Sense Wales’s website here.
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.
If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.
3rd Party Cookies
This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.
Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.
Please enable Strictly Necessary Cookies first so that we can save your preferences!
This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site. Switch to a production site key to remove this banner.
