Castell Howell has launched a new scheme to bring together Welsh farmers and growers with classrooms, sporting academies and kitchens.
The ‘Growing Healthy Futures’ initiative looks to encourage uptake of domestically grown food and highlight the importance of healthier diets.
The Welsh independent foodservice wholesaler currently supplies ingredients for approximately 850,000 school and tertiary college meals per week.
It is now working with the Welsh government, local authority and college caterers, Food Sense Wales, Mentera and Cardiff Metropolitan University to restructure its education sector supply chain to deliver sustainable diets and build a “resilient, secure and sustainable” supply base.
To help raise profile of the Growing Healthy Futures initiative, former Scarlets and Wales rugby player Steff Evans will lead engagement.
Plans are underway to evolve the programme to include primary schools and local authority catering across Wales, but his first project is at Bridgend College and its Rugby Academy where Evans will promote the importance of growing and cooking nutritious food to aspiring rugby players.
The initiative currently focusses specifically on organic Welsh horticulture, but will evolve over time to cover all food groups.
“We are very conscious of the human health concerns in Wales, also the challenges that face our supply chains, including commercial pressures, consumer choice, environmental concerns and political decisions,” said Castell Howell MD Matt Lewis.
“We’re so pleased to work with Bridgend College, local authorities and partners to evolve this project and help deliver solutions.”
The initiative builds on the ’Welsh Veg in Schools’ project that launched in 2022, growing and supplying one tonne of organic vegetables to Cardiff schools.
By 2025, this had increased to more than 25 tonnes delivered to schools across 10 local authorities. Working with a cohort of farmers and growers, the ambition is to develop this further by investing in production and infrastructure.
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