A Welsh food community says local co-operatives are good alternatives for high-quality fruits and vegetables, minus the excessive plastic packaging
Students should look beyond major food retailers for fresh, affordable and plastic wrapping-free foods, says a Welsh food community in Cardiff.
Splo-down, a group of neighbours from Splott, Adamsdown and Tremorfa who run a weekly food stall, believes local food co-operatives can be ideal for university attendees who want to eat high-quality fruits and vegetables and shop sustainably while on a budget.
“In supermarkets, foods come in smaller portions. They are more expensive and wrapped in plastic,” said Dan, a Splo-down volunteer. “What we offer comes straight from farms to the wholesaler and finally us. The food is brand new. It’s not gone to a distribution centre and then to a supermarket where it sits in the fridge in the back.”
“It’s cheaper straight away. We’re all just volunteers, contributing our time, so we’re not paying staff.”
In Cardiff, food co-ops have emerged alongside pantries, food clubs, and food banks to tackle food inflation and insecurity. The model allows neighbours to collaborate and manage their local food supply chain, resulting in good-quality food at lower costs.
Some food co-ops invite customers to pay a small fee to shop from it, while others are open to all. Bags of fruit and vegetables can cost between £2 and £4, saving up to £220 a year on your shopping bill compared to supermarket shopping.
The Gate Food Co-operative operates for families on City and Albany Road and works on a membership basis. They provide a range of cupboard staples such as fresh fruits, vegetables, cereals and dairy products.
The TAVS Food Co-op on Tavistock Street allows members to receive £15 worth of food items on a nominal membership fee of £3.
Splo-down lets people in Splott, Adamsdown and Tremorfa become members, after which you “pay what you can afford”. “If you have a little more money, you can choose to pay extra. If you’ve got less, you can choose to pay a little less, and it all balances out because it’s the communities working together,” said Dan.
Food co-ops often allow customers to shop for produce grown by local farmers. “We try to get foods from UK-based growers as much as possible, ” said Dan. “We get our fruits and vegetables from a wholesaler based in Cardiff, in the Grangetown area.”
“When it gets into winter, it’s not always possible to get everything local. We try to keep things in the UK as much as we can, but we might get, for instance, peppers from Spain or Poland.”