Aberdeen recognised with Gold Sustainable Food Places award

Aberdeen is the first in Scotland and sixth in the UK to gain the prestigious award.

Aberdeen has been recognised with a Gold Sustainable Food Places Award. CREDIT: Sustainable Food Places

Aberdeen has become the latest area to be recognised with a Gold Sustainable Food Places award.

The prestigious award reflects a joined-up approach towards sustainable food and honours areas which are making healthy, affordable, and sustainable food a defining characteristic of their region. Aberdeen joins only Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, and Middlesborough in achieving the highest level of recognition.

Granite City Good Food partner, Middlefield Community Project (MCP), staff and volunteers celebrating Aberdeen’s Sustainable Food Places Award. CREDIT: Lesley Dunbar

Aberdeen first achieved a sustainable food places award in 2018, becoming the first in Scotland to achieve a bronze-level award. In 2022, alongside Edinburgh, Aberdeen achieved a Silver award, and the Gold award is the latest development in Aberdeen’s sustainable food journey. On the achievement, Granite City Good Food Chair, Lesley Dunbar of Middlefield Community Project – who showcased how they have embedded the ‘Food Ladders’ framework as part of the visit by Sustainable Food Places representatives – said:

“Our SFP Gold Award is a great achievement for Aberdeen – the city and its communities. It demonstrates the strength of our partnership. Hundreds of people have helped to achieve this award, among them our 60 community growing spaces and 93 Community Food Members. I’d also like to thank the staff at Aberdeen City Council who first brought SFP to our attention and thank CFINE who have housed the SFP team at their premises since the get-go. There are so many people I could thank…”

Hosted and coordinated by CFINE, Staff and Volunteers at the organisation celebrated the award’ CREDIT: CFINE

Granite City Good Food is hosted by CFINE who support the coordination of the project. CFINE Chief Executive, Fiona Rae commented:

“Achieving the Sustainable Food Places Gold award is fantastic for Aberdeen and demonstrates the true commitment to achieving sustainable outcomes for our city.  CFINE is delighted to play an integral part in coordinating Granite City Good Food, the local Sustainable Food Places Partnership, and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the range of cross sector partners across Aberdeen who have contributed to achieving Gold.  Building a strong, engaged, and active good food movement is crucial to the future sustainability of Aberdeen, and being the first partnership in Scotland to achieve the Gold standard is a key part in driving this work forward into the future.  I am delighted this partnership has been recognised both locally and nationally, and I would like to thank Sustainable Food Places for their ongoing  support.”

Granite City Good Food partner, Tillydrone Community Flat, hosted a visit from Sustainable Food Places representatives as part of the bid for gold’ CREDIT: Granite City Good Food/ Sustainable Food Places

CFINE’s Sustainable Food Coordinator, Martin Carle, who coordinates Granite City Good Food, celebrated:

“Achieving the first Sustainable Food Places Gold Award in Scotland is an amazing piece of recognition for partners, stakeholders, and communities across Aberdeen. It reflects a huge amount of effort which has gone into embedding a whole-systems approach to sustainable food, and shows the city has a lot to be proud of and there is so much to be excited about, looking to the future.”

As one of the areas of exceptional achievement, efforts to build the food movement through skills was recognised. Activity for this included events such as zero waste cooking classes. CREDIT: CFINE/Granite City Good Food

Aberdeen City Council has been a core partner of Granite City Good Food since its establishment in 2017. The local authority is one of the core funders of the partnership. In 2023, Aberdeen City Council was recognised as 5th strongest local authority in the UK for waste reduction and food, in its ‘Climate Action Scorecard,’ as part of which involvement in Granite City Good Food was recognised as one of the key indicators. Aberdeen City Council Co-Leader, Councillor Ian Yuill said:

“The award is welcome recognition of Aberdeen’s commitment to sustainable food. Our joined-up approach supports local people and communities. It is good to work with regional suppliers and producers to help the economy of the area. Keeping business local brings additional benefits including lower transport costs and less carbon emissions which is good for the environment." 

Sustainable Food Places is a network of 114 food partnerships across the UK. Aberdeen's Gold Award makes it only the sixth to achieve this award. CREDIT: Sustainable Food Places

Leon Ballin, the 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 100+ members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network to follow. They should be very proud of the work that they have been doing to transform our collective food culture and food system for the better.”

Across the coming months, Granite City Good Food will continue to develop its plans and partnership around sustainable food. It looks set to play a key role in the development of key strategies, including the Good Food Nation and the Local Outcome Improvement Plan.

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