Cardiff and Vale UHB pick of the crop at the 2021 Peas Please Prizes

Today, Wales made its mark at the second annual Peas Please Prize Ceremony during which the winners and runners up for progress in 2019/2020 were announced.  With five nominations in total, Peas Please Pledgers from Wales went on to win two of the seven categories – with Cardiff taking the top spot in the Veg City Prize and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board winning the Veg-O-Meter Prize.

“I am so pleased to see Cardiff and our Health Board being recognised for the fantastic work that has been taking place to ensure everyone has access to healthy choices,” says Fiona Kinghorn, Executive Director of Public Health for Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.  “Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of its staff and local population, with particular focus on a healthier food environment. I am so proud of all that our teams have achieved, being the first Health Board in Wales to formally adopt Healthy Eating Standards for Hospital Restaurant & Retail Outlets that focus on making the healthy choice, the easy choice.” 

Peas Please is a UK-wide ground-breaking initiative focused specifically on veg and is a partnership that includes The Food Foundation, Food Sense Wales, Nourish Scotland, Belfast Food Network and Food NI. Since the project launched four years ago it has delivered 162 million additional portions of vegetables into our food system working across all four nations.

With our vegetable consumption levels declining, Peas Please aims to bring together producers, retailers, restaurants, caterers, wholesalers, processors and government departments with a common goal of making it easier for everyone to eat veg.  Across the UK, over 100 Organisations have already pledged to play their part to help everyone in the UK eat an extra portion of veg a day as part of their Peas Please ‘Veg Pledges’.

Hosted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall at a specially recorded ceremony at River Cottage, he today announced the names of the companies, organisations and individuals who are leading the way in the way that they’re transforming their businesses and organisations to drive up vegetable consumption.

The Veg City Prize won by Cardiff recognises impactful and integrated place-based approaches to increasing veg uptake at a local level for cities participating in the Veg Cities campaign while the Veg-O-Meter Prize, won by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board celebrates the biggest % increase in vegetable portions sold or served by our pledgers during the 2019/20 reporting cycles.

“I’m delighted that Cardiff has today won the Veg Cities Prize – another great achievement for the city and another accolade that recognises the amazing work that’s happening across Cardiff,” says Pearl Costello, Sustainable Food Places Co-ordinator in Cardiff.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board are also celebrating today’s win having made the shortlist in the Innovation category at last year’s awards ceremony.

The Veg-O-Meter Prize recognises the fact that Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have increased the amount of veg they were serving year on year by a staggering 701.7% from just one of their sites.

“It is great to hear the Cardiff and Vale University Health has been recognised for a Peas Please Prize. A considerable amount of work has gone in to increasing the vegetable consumption of those who purchase food across the Cardiff and Vale sites. As part of the Healthy Eating Standards and the Peas Please Pledge, the aim is to set the highest standards possible, incorporating more vegetables into hot meals as well as in all the freshly made products available to purchase at the Health Board’s own food outlets. Everyone involved should be really proud of the work so far,” says Helen Griffith, chair of Cardiff and Vale University Health Board’s Healthy Eating Standards for Hospital Restaurant & Retail Outlets Steering Group.