RCT Food Partnership

Our partnership is called ‘RCT Food’ and is hosted by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council.  Our vision is that all people living, working in or visiting Rhondda Cynon Taf (RCT) will have access to healthy, tasty, affordable food and that this food should also be good for the environment and our local economy.

 

RCT Food started following a Community Growing Solutions Network event held by Interlink in July 2020. This event was attended by a variety of stakeholders including local community groups, Third Sector, Health, Local Authority & business. A recommendation from this event was to apply to Sustainable Food Places to begin a collaborative approach to developing a Good Food Movement in RCT.

 

Following a successful Development Grant, we have now become a Member of SFP and been awarded a contribution towards a Coordinator grant. We have recently appointed a Sustainable Food Coordinator.

 

Our Coordinator has a work plan which includes strengthening our Steering Group and Sustainable Food Network further. Membership is not exclusive. We have ambitious plans in RCT and will be working towards Gold Standard and making a big impact on Climate Change with our partners.

What we do

Significant progress has been made with Sustainable Food Places since January 2021.

 

  • Initial development of a Sustainable Food Network & Steering Group - interest and commitment has been gained from a range of partners to be part of a Good Food Movement in RCT. A distribution list which is held by our County Voluntary Council, Interlink.  

 

  • Successful Event - on 18th May 2021 a virtual event was facilitated by Interlink. Organisations involved and interested in being part of a Sustainable Food Place in RCT attended. 82 individuals signed up for the event.

 

The event focussed on 4 food-related themes:

 

  • Growing locally
  • Increasing access to affordable & healthy food
  • Awareness raising & education
  • Food Supply Chains / Food in Business

 

Seven workshops took place in total due to the amount of people in attendance. Each workshop had a facilitator and a note taker. The workshops sought to identify:

 

  • What was going well currently
  • What could make things better
  • Key recommendations/actions

 

Notes were collated and sent back out to all attendees to add comments to other workshops. From this event there is clear buy-in & agreement across Rhondda Cynon Taf that a strategic approach to Food is required, and a recognition that this must be linked with overarching strategy, so it becomes a ‘top-table issue’. Ideas and actions have been identified in the short, medium and long term.

 

Our Sustainable Food Coordinator has recently been appointed to start work on these actions.

 

 

Food Support Fund

 

The Food Support Fund was established as a partnership between RCTCBC and Trivallis, with funds totalling £20,000. Small grants of up to £500.00 have been administered and provided to community groups providing food support, including the four main Foodbanks in RCT, to residents locally. The Fund supports direct food related costs and is making a huge difference to local people. To date 40 applications have been accessed for 22 Community Groups. 

 

 


Areas of expertise

Partnership & Collaboration

Tackling Food Poverty