Food Cardiff has strengthened its Strategy Board with eight new members, bringing a broad range of professional expertise and lived experience to the partnership as it begins work on a new food action plan for the city.
The appointments come as Food Cardiff looks beyond Cardiff’s achievement of the prestigious Gold Sustainable Food Places Award in 2024 and begins developing an ambitious new plan to guide the city’s Good Food Movement through to 2030.
The new Strategy Board members are:
- Anthony Ruston, Head of Retail & Catering, Cardiff and Vale College
- Sabrina Khan, Founder, Maasi’s Restaurant
- Jono Hughes, Vegetable Farmer, Blas Gwent Farm
- Gareth Ludkin, Policy and Projects Manager, Campaign for National Parks and Environmental Consultant
- Pola Grzybowska, Medical Doctor
- Andrew Rowlands, Software Engineer with previous Food-Sector Experience
- Sarah Germain (CEO) and Katie Padfield (Head of Development), FareShare Cymru, joint Food Cardiff board position
Together, they bring perspectives from further education, farming and food production, community food provision, environmental policy, healthcare, hospitality, technology and international food systems. They join existing board members representing Cardiff Council, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Food Sense Wales, Cardiff Farmers Markets, academia, community food projects and independent communications:
- Liz Lambert, Sustainable Development Group Leader, Cardiff Council
- Sam Chettleburgh, Principal Sustainability Officer – Food, Cardiff Council
- Emma Holmes, Head of Nutrition and Dietetic Services, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
- Rebecca Stewart, Principal Public Health Practitioner, Cardiff and Vale Public Health Team, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board
- Jane Cook – Strategic Communications Consultant
- Carol Adams – Cardiff Farmers Markets Manager
- Camilla Lovelace – Community Food Activist, Tremorfa Pantry and Splodown
- Angelina Sanderson Bellamy – Professor of Food Systems, University of the West of England
The expanded board met in person for the first time in July to begin exploring the priorities, evidence and partnerships that will underpin the next Food Cardiff action plan.
Lucinda Sehic, Food Cardiff Co-ordinator, said:
“Cardiff already has a strong and active Good Food Movement, five established goals and a wealth of learning from projects and conversations taking place across the city. Our task now is to bring that information together, understand where the gaps and blind spots remain, and agree where Food Cardiff and its partners can have the greatest impact over the next three years.
“We also need to be clear about how we will measure progress. Some areas of food-system change can be difficult to quantify, so the Strategy Board will help us identify a meaningful combination of indicators, outcome measures and insights from lived experience that shows whether conditions are genuinely improving.
“The new members have already brought fresh energy and valuable questions to the process. I’m excited about what we can achieve together.”
Food Cardiff is a city-wide partnership connecting the people and projects working to promote healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food. It is also part of Wales’s growing network of Local Food Partnerships and was one of the founding members of the UK-wide Sustainable Food Places movement.
In 2024, Cardiff became the first place in Wales to progress through Bronze, Silver and Gold Sustainable Food Places status, and only the fourth place in the UK to achieve Gold at that time. The award recognised the collective work taking place across the city to build a healthier, fairer and more sustainable food system.
Food Cardiff’s work is currently guided by five Good Food Goals: creating a healthy Cardiff; an environmentally sustainable Cardiff; a thriving local food economy; a fair and connected food system; and an empowering food movement.
The new three-year action plan will build on those foundations while responding to what citizens, community organisations and food-system stakeholders have said they need from the next phase of the partnership.
Last year, a series of Food Conversations held across Cardiff gathered residents’ experiences and ideas about the future of food in the city. This insight will be considered alongside evidence about food insecurity, health inequalities, food waste, access to growing space, public-sector procurement, local food employment and the resilience of Cardiff’s community food organisations.
Pearl Costello, Chair of the Food Cardiff Strategy Board, said:
“The new Strategy Board brings together an exciting and genuinely varied mix of knowledge, skills and experience. That diversity will be essential as we consider the complex connections between food, health, poverty, farming, the environment, communities and the local economy.
“We want the next action plan to be ambitious, but also practical, inclusive and rooted in the reality of people’s lives. Our new members will help us challenge our thinking, identify gaps and build the partnerships needed to turn that ambition into meaningful action.”
One project informing the next stage of Food Cardiff’s work is Planet Card, a pilot that provided people experiencing low incomes with weekly credit to spend on organic fruit and vegetables at Cardiff Farmers Markets.
An independent evaluation found that the initiative helped participants increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, while also strengthening food literacy, community connections and support for local growers. Food Cardiff is currently seeking funding to develop the initiative further.
The development of Cardiff’s local action plan also comes at a significant time for food policy nationally. On 21 July 2026, the Welsh Government announced plans for a new National Food Strategy for Wales, intended to connect policies spanning food production, processing, retail, health, education, public procurement and the circular economy.
Food Cardiff will continue consulting with communities, businesses, growers, public bodies and partner organisations as the action plan develops.
The partnership will also hold a summer gathering at Splott Community Volunteers from 5pm to 7pm on Wednesday 19 August, offering members of Cardiff’s Good Food Movement an opportunity to meet, share food and connect with other people working across the city. Anyone is welcome to attend, and can sign up for a free ticket via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/food-cardiff-gathering-cynulliad-bwyd-caerdydd-tickets-1995663900448
