DUMFRIES and Galloway has won a prestigious Sustainable Food Places Silver award.
It recognises the work of D&G Good Food – the regional sustainable food partnership – 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 the disappearance of family farms and the loss of independent food retailers.
Meanwhile, D&G Good Food have published their 2023-26 Action Plan. It contains 25 actions and six themes, including moves to improve school food procurement, supporting local, climate and nature friendly supply chains, and enabling knowledge sharing for sustainable farming.
Partnership chair Eva Milroy said: “This award is a celebration of the achievements of the Dumfries and Galloway good food movement. It shows what positive and supportive partnership can be built, even in a large rural region like ours. By bringing together social enterprises, public and private organisations and influential individuals, we have been making positive differences when it comes to systems and practices that influence the local food movement.”
Leon Ballin, Sustainable Food Places programme manager, added: “Dumfries and Galloway 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, Dumfries and Galloway has helped to set a high benchmark for other members of the UK Sustainable Food Places Network to follow. We look forward to working with them over the months and years ahead to continue to transform Dumfries and Galloway’s food culture and food system for the better.”