Aberdeen City has become the latest place to win a prestigious Sustainable Food Places award. The award recognises Granite City Good Food’s work to promote healthy, sustainable and local food and to tackle some of today’s greatest social challenges, from food poverty and diet-related ill-health to using food as part of responses to the climate and nature emergency.
Granite City Good Food has been a key voice in creating systems change to ensure food can be good for people, planet, and economy. Amongst the key projects within the city, the partnership supported Aberdeen City Council in confirming its commitment to the Glasgow Declaration for Food and Climate, hosted the first ever Community Garden Festival, and has also coordinated key campaigns around increasing business use of sustainable fish and public consumption of healthy diets, as well as currently running a “Food for the Planet” campaign.
Lesley Dunbar, Granite City Good Food Interim Chair, commented:
“It's a great achievement for the city where much of our focus remains on the mitigations for the climate crisis and cost of living crisis. I would like to thank all partners who worked towards achieving our Silver Award including all internal partners at ACC and CFINE. I'd like to also thank Martin Carle, our local Granite City Good Food Coordinator who has worked tirelessly to bring all this together. We look forward now to becoming the first city in Scotland to achieve Gold in 2025.”
Hosted by CFINE, the organisation has supported a range of activities around creating a sustainable food system including emergency food support and community food pantries, community growing development, and cash-first approaches through the SAFE Team. CFINE was also the charity partner at the recent Taste of Grampian event, the region’s largest food festival.
Martin Carle, Sustainable Food Coordinator, CFINE, said:
“Granite City Good Food demonstrates that transforming food systems towards sustainability is possible, and the partners of Granite City Good Food have been committed voices in acting at a strategic level around this agenda, as have the wider organisations and businesses who engaged with the application process.”
Key to the success of the city in creating a sustainable food system, Granite City Good Food’s role as a member of the Sustainable Food Places network has allowed the partnership to learn from other areas across the UK and, likewise, to establish itself as a local leader in sustainable food issues.
Leon Ballin, Sustainable Food Places Programme Manager, said:
“Granite City Good Food has shown just what can be achieved when creative and committed people work together to make healthy and sustainable food a defining characteristic of where they live. While there is still much to do and many challenges to overcome, Granite City Good Food has helped to set a benchmark for the other 80+ members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network to follow. We look forward to working with them over the months and years ahead to transform Aberdeen City’s food culture and food system for the better.”
In the coming months, Granite City Good Food will be expanding upon its plans to continue creating systems and welcomes any food businesses or organisations who have not yet joined the journey to get in touch.
