The third annual Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival began again this week, and will run until 18th October with dozens of events planned across the city.
Community groups, schools, gardens and businesses will run a wide range of events centred around cooking, sharing and growing food. Many events this autumn will focus on how communities are coming together to help people to continue to access healthy and nutritious food through the cost of living crisis.
Food Cardiff and C3SC have provided grants to 20 schools and community groups to help them run events as part of the Autumn Festival’s programme, with many other community organisations also joining in with their own self-funded events during the five weeks. The full festival programme can be found on the Food Cardiff website.
Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival – highlights
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Splott-based food co-op, Splo-down is hosting a Solidarity Feast on 25th September. They provide veg boxes and other food and drink on a ‘solidarity model’ – they buy in bulk to keep costs low, then sell on the basis that some people pay more and others less depending on their means, for the same food. The Solidarity Feast will be a communal meal held in Splott Park with people cooking from Splo-down food boxes and recipes that they’ve been provided with. Splo-down helps people on low incomes, asylum seekers, refugees and people with no access to other support in Splott, Tremorfa and Adamsdown.
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CEYZ, an organisation supporting young people in Ely and Caerau are hosting Look, Cook and Eat! a cook-along for families with children of primary school age. The event will be based around ingredients that can be sourced locally and feature fruit and veg near/over ‘sell-by’ date to show that food waste can be reduced by using produce that is still good to eat. The session will introduce new fruit and vegetables (look), show people how to prepare the ingredients (cook) and then bring everyone together for a shared meal (eat!).
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Llamau will be running healthy eating and cooking evenings at its new supported accommodation project for young people at risk of homelessness on the theme of Healthy fake-aways from around the world. Support workers and the young people will research recipes for their chosen cuisine – Arabian, American, Asian and Italian – and will shop locally before cooking and sharing a meal every Thursday evening during the festival. The programme supports key life skills to help young people gain independence as well as helping to build confidence and community networks.
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The Love Yourself Community Group is bringing together women from the community who would otherwise not have a safe space to connect and share their passion for cooking. The women will shop locally to serve weekly community brunches in Butetown which showcase their cooking skills and encourage others to use the fresh and local ingredients available in their own communities.
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Riverside, Roath and Rhiwbina Farmers Markets are hosting three, free workshops across the weekend of 14th – 16th October; covering growing microgreens at home, and using local, organic veg to make nutritious smoothies. Find out more here.
Cardiff’s Good Food Strategy
All of the events at the Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival also support Food Cardiff’s Good Food Strategy (a document I helped to pull together as part of my day job in comms) which sets out five main food goals – for a healthy Cardiff; an environmentally sustainable Cardiff; a thriving local economy; a fair and connected food system; and an empowering food movement. To find out more about the Good Food Strategy, see here.
This is the third Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival organised by Food Cardiff to support and promote the city-wide mission to make Cardiff one of the UK’s most Sustainable Food Places. More than 5,000 people have been involved in events over the previous autumn festivals, with hundreds of meals cooked and shared together.
About Food Cardiff
Food Cardiff is a city-wide partnership of individuals and organisations. It acts as a hub for connecting the people and projects working to promote healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food across the city; it acts as a voice for wider change.
Food Cardiff was established in 2014 as one of the founding Sustainable Food Places in the UK. During the last seven years, it has developed and grown significantly, making a recognisable impact city-wide. In 2021, Cardiff achieved Silver Sustainable Food Places status, becoming the first place in Wales and one of only six places in the UK to achieve the prestigious accolade.
