PLANED’s community led food projects progress past the pilots! 

Led by PLANED two of their food projects received funding through the Welsh Government Rural Communities – Rural Development Programme 2014-2020, which is funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Welsh Government. 

As a response partly post COVID, to supporting well-being, and the local economy of our communities, the Wales Community Food Distribution Initiative (WCFD), empowered 15 communities across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire to launch their own food hubs, where volunteers link with local food producers and suppliers to have easy access to healthy and great value food on a weekly basis. Find out more and locate your food hub at https://www.communityfood.wales/ Pembrokeshire Fresh Community Vending (PFCV) has created the opportunity for 24/7 access to Welsh suppliers and locally sourced produce by launching 2 busy vending machines with 160 lockers.  

As the pilots comes to a successful end, the team are excited to launch the Wales Community Food Hub Toolkit to help community groups to create their own food hub. Download the toolkit at https://www.communityfood.wales/toolkit Abi Marriott, WCFD Project Coordinator wants to say ‘a big THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in our pilot stages and whose valuable feedback and ideas have helped create this toolkit. We’re excited to see what’s coming next for all the food hubs and to launch our next phase of the project’. 

 Complementing the community food hubs, was the additional project of ‘Pembrokeshire Fresh Community Vending’. This project has led the way on expanding the current limited vending market in Wales, to deliver a potential full range of locally sourced food items, from meat and fish, to dairy, and from fresh fruit and vegetables, to luxury chocolates and preserves. All items are available in state of the art machines shipped in specifically to the UK for PLANED, and operate  24/7 with contactless payments for local residents and visitors alike. 

This further demonstrates PLANED’s commitment to enabling access to local produce to our communities, whilst also promoting & supporting our local suppliers, growers, and producers. 

Have you used the vending machines yet? Want to share ideas on new produce to stock? You can find our more and locate the first ones at https://www.communityfood.wales/pfcv 

Sue Latham, PFCV Project Coordinator says ‘this was a fantastic pilot project delivered alongside the Wales Community Food Distribution Project  and operating a flexible, inclusive, environmentally and economically sustainable distribution model, bringing together community groups, food producers and suppliers in Wales stimulating Wales food supply chains.’

With PLANED looking to now develop further and expand both the Vending outlets and community food hubs across West Wales, if you want to know more about fresh food vending opportunities in your community, or would simply like to discuss in more detail about how PLANED can help you and the wider local food system in west Wales,  then get in touch with the team at wcfd@planed.org.uk