Communities in Powys and Monmouthshire are set to benefit from a £1.46m initiative aimed at strengthening local food systems and encouraging practical action on climate change.
Marches Food Systems for the Future has received £1,458,193.85 from the National Lottery Community Fund's Climate Action Fund. The project covers Monmouthshire, Powys, Herefordshire and Shropshire, bringing together food partnerships across the four areas.
The initiative is intended to support locally led projects that help people engage with food production, improve access to food and reduce waste. Activities could include community growing, cooking projects, composting, shared meals and visits to farms.
Monmouthshire County Council is the lead accountable body. The work is being coordinated through Marches Food Partnership, which brings together Monmouthshire Food Partnership, Bwyd Powys Food, Herefordshire Food Alliance and Shropshire Good Food Partnership.
Connecting communities with food
The project takes a broad approach to food resilience, looking beyond the availability of food to how it is produced, accessed and used.
Community growing schemes can give residents opportunities to produce food themselves, while cooking projects can help people make better use of ingredients. Work to reduce food waste and improve composting can also connect household activity with wider environmental goals.
For farmers and food businesses, stronger relationships with local communities could create opportunities to raise awareness of Welsh produce and bring consumers closer to the people who grow and make their food.
The project is also intended to encourage communities to develop solutions that reflect their own circumstances, rather than applying a single approach across all four counties.
Working across the Welsh border
The regional partnership links organisations in Wales and England, giving them a structure through which to share experience and develop local projects.
For Powys and Monmouthshire, the Welsh food partnerships will be important in connecting the wider programme with communities and food organisations on the ground. The initiative's impact will depend on how effectively those relationships translate into activity that residents can take part in.
The Climate Action Fund supports community action on climate change. By focusing on food, the Marches project brings environmental objectives into everyday activities, from growing vegetables to making better use of surplus ingredients.
Its broad remit also means the benefits could take different forms in different places. A community might focus on growing or cooking, while another could concentrate on reducing waste or helping people access local food.
The funding gives the four-county partnership an opportunity to develop those activities over the coming years. For Welsh communities, the key outcome will be whether the programme helps turn interest in local food into lasting participation, stronger community connections and more resilient food networks.
