Bremenda Isaf Farm supplying Ysgol Bro Dinefwr with local veg

A project is underway which sees vegetables from a county farm in Carmarthenshire feeding children at a nearby secondary school.

Local vegetables – organically grown, harvested and processed on the farm at Bremenda Isaf in Llanarthne – are being transported to Ysgol Bro Dinefwr and served to pupils as part of themed lunches during their school day.

This scheme is a partnership between the school, Carmarthenshire County Council’s Catering Department and an initiative called the Food Systems Development Project – a project delivered by partners from Bwyd Sir Gâr Food that looks at how we produce, sell, promote and eat local and sustainable food across Carmarthenshire.

Having taken over the running of Bremenda Isaf, a 100-acre council farm in Llanarthne, the Food Systems Development Project is trialling and scaling up new ways of getting local vegetables onto the plates of the county’s primary schools and care homes.  This exciting development with Ysgol Bro Dinefwr is part of that work.

Using climate and nature-friendly farming practices, the team at Bremenda Isaf is growing a host of different vegetables that will make their way into school and care home meals, ensuring that some of the county’s youngest and eldest residents are benefiting from locally grown, high quality, fresh produce.  Crops range from cucumbers to carrots and from brussels sprouts to pumpkins with the following vegetables making their way to Ysgol Bro Dinefwr – with over 40kg going on to school plates on the first day of delivery:

• Cucumber
• Fennel
• Runner Beans
• Purple Sprouting broccoli
• Tomatoes
• Rainbow Chard
• Beetroot

We are delighted to be able to see the first crops from Bremenda Isaf County Farm making their way on to the plates of students at Bro Dinefwr,”

says Chris Pugh, Senior Catering Manager at Carmarthenshire County Council. 

Utilising locally grown, high quality, fresh produce on our menu is the first exciting step in the wider food systems development project for the catering department. Our Chefs are looking forward to showing how local produce can be championed as part of a range of exciting dishes, showing off flavours from around the world.”

Alex Cook, Food Systems Development Project Manager adds:

Menu development and design play a crucial role in delivering sustainable, local food on to the public plate.  By directly employing growers to produce the food, this innovative and collaborative solution is the effect of good communications between demand, supply and distribution. This is a great step forward, with partners working collaboratively towards creating a Carmarthenshire Food Systems that produces, provides and promotes sustainable and healthy food for Future Generations.”

The farm is also growing grains as it explores a return to an older, mixed way of farming that’s producing the variety of food essential for public health, in tune with nature and takes into consideration the farm’s heritage and the area’s food culture. This has been looked at in more detail as part of a heritage project that’s been encouraging local people to think about the farm, the produce and the land, asking participants to respond to how that makes them feel through art, poetry and song.

As well as trialling this innovative approach at Bremenda Isaf, the Food Systems Development project is also working with the dietetic team at Hywel Dda University Health Board to develop people’s cooking and nutrition skills, whilst partnering with the Carmarthenshire Food Network to further community connections through food in all corners of the county too.

Cabinet Member for Rural Affairs, Community Cohesion and Planning Policy – Cllr Carys Jones said:

It’s great to see this project delivering on its targets with fresh, local and highly nutritious food being efficiently produced here in Carmarthenshire for our school children. Food Systems work covers a lot of our strategic objectives as a Council, everything from the Rural Economy and Environment to Community Health and Tackling Poverty. More Farmers, More Food, More Resilience”

The Food Systems Development project has funded the development of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food’s website too, to help raise awareness of the work of Bwyd Sir Gâr Food and to get as many people from Carmarthenshire involved in building a better food future for all of us.

Bwyd Sir Gâr Food is also part of the wider, national Welsh Veg in Schools project that’s co-ordinated by Food Sense Wales and aims to get more organically produced Welsh veg into primary school meals across the whole of Wales.  Vegetables from Bremenda Isaf will be supplied into schools across six local authority areas taking part in the project.  In Carmarthenshire, the veg that’s being grown as part of Welsh Veg in Schools is being delivered to schools during British Food Fortnight that’s taking place between September 20^th and October 6^th.

Working with partners that include Castell Howell, Farming Connect Horticulture as well as a host of enthusiastic growers – including the team at Bremenda Isaf farm – the Welsh Veg in Schools project is helping to get more locally produced organic vegetables into school lunches.  Welsh Veg in Schools is also about redesigning supply chains to make them fairer and more resilient building on the commitment from Welsh Government to ensure that every primary aged child in Wales is offered a free school meal – and that the food used to produce that meal, where possible, comes from local suppliers.

With only around a quarter of a portion of veg per head of population being currently produced in Wales, both the Welsh Veg in Schools project and the pilot project being developed between Ysgol Bro Dinefwr and Bremenda Isaf farm have the potential to not only increase the local market and impact the local economy, but also to help children connect with their food and to better understand where their food comes from.