Thousands of people across Cardiff have attended workshops, community feasts, and good food gatherings over the last four weeks, as part of the third annual Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival – a diverse programme of events across the city.
The festival was organised by Food Cardiff, part of the Sustainable Food Places network.
As part of the festival, grants were given to 20 different schools and community groups around the city, to cover the cost of running an event. In a show of real community spirit in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis, many of the successfully-funded events were aimed at bringing people together to build resilience, and improve access to healthy and sustainable food for the whole community.
Cardiff Community Spirit
One of the funded organisations was Urban-Vertical CIC, who used the festival grant to run free ‘Farm to Fork’ workshops in Splott, showing people how to grow sustainable microgreens to supplement their diets at home. A farm tour and talk detailed how vertical farming can help to reduce the impacts of climate change and tackle cost of living rises; participants were then invited to use the new community growing area in one of the converted shipping containers at Signal Box, to sow and grow their own crops.
These workshops in Splott were followed by a weekend of free talks at the Roath and Riverside local farmers markets. Amanda Wood, founder of Urban-Vertical CIC said,
“We have one aim at Urban Vertical CIC, and that’s to help our community thrive and we are doing this through connecting, growing, and creating. It was wonderful to be a part of the Good Food Autumn Festival, helping people from across Cardiff to get hands-on with growing food whilst promoting the well-being of our communities, our planetary health and our local food system.”
Other events throughout the festival included Tremorfa Pantry’s ‘Ready, Steady Cook’ – pantry members could collect an extra bag of ingredients at their weekly shop, to be cooked up into a dish or dishes to share amongst the community the next day; at Cardiff Farmers Markets, SOL Nutrition gave a free demo showing how to make nutritious smoothies from organic market produce to support good health; meanwhile, the Love Yourself Community Group in Butetown used local produce from local shops to cook a delicious feast for members to enjoy.
This is the third Good Food Cardiff Autumn Festival organised by Food Cardiff, designed to support a city-wide mission to make Cardiff one of the UK’s most Sustainable Food Cities.
About Food Cardiff
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.
Food Cardiff believes that the food we eat has a huge impact on life in Cardiff – not just on people’s health, but on communities and businesses, farmers and food producers, and the environment too. It’s a belief which I wholeheartedly share, and earlier this year, I was thrilled to become a volunteer member of the Food Cardiff Strategy Board, appointed to focus on the partnership’s strategic direction, and offer guidance on how to further develop and enhance its success.
To find out more about Food Cardiff, visit: https://foodcardiff.com/about-food-cardiff.
