New recruit joins Food Vale team to drive forward work tackling food insecurity

Thanks to funding from Welsh Government, Food Vale has been able to employ a new member of the team for a 12-month period to carry out crucial work on food insecurity in the Vale of Glamorgan.

Cat Siviter joined the team in July and will be using her wealth of experience in community nutrition and home economics to help build a better picture of food insecurity in the Vale of Glamorgan. The main three pieces of work that Cat will be leading on are:

  • Research and community engagement into food insecurity in the Vale of Glamorgan.
  • Delivery of a rural food pantry pilot in collaboration with partners in the FoodShare run by Glamorgan Voluntary Services.
  • A new Vale Food Insecurity Working Group.

This work follows on from the successful Llantwit Food Pilot Project, being delivered by project partners in the Llantwit Major region thanks to Lottery funding in order to improve access to food and build community resilience. This new work will seek to build on the learning from the pilot in Llantwit Major and roll this out to the rest of the county.

The project has been made possible thanks to funding from Welsh Government which was announced by the minister for Social Justice last year. The funding was made available to local authorities across the whole of Wales, for the purpose of developing cross-sector food partnerships and building resilience in local food networks.

Louise Denham, coordinator of Food Vale, says “Ensuring that everyone has a good meal, every day, is one of Food Vale’s priorities. We are likely heading into another difficult winter for many people, and it is crucial that we use our resources as best as we possibly can, to make sure people can access good food. We are so fortunate to have found someone as well-suited for this work as Cat.”

Cat Siviter said “I really hope this project can help make a positive difference to people in the Vale, and I am looking forward to working closely with different partner organisations to make this happen.”