Healthy, Affordable Food Project for North Wales Church Schools

Church Schools across north-east and mid-Wales will be able to support local families with better access to good quality food, thanks to a partnership with a Flintshire-based social enterprise.

The Diocese of St Asaph is working with Shotton-based Well-Fed to identify schools where ten families would benefit from 12 weeks of subsided meals, a free slow cooker and cookery lessons.

The Head of Education, Children’s and Youth Work for the Diocese of St Asaph, Louise Williams, said: “Many of our schools see first-hand the impact of diet on their pupils, and being able to offer this project will help support some of those most in need in our communities.

“Teachers know how difficult it can be for children to learn properly if they’re coming to school on an empty stomach. We want our schools to be able to support the whole family and this project will help embed the principles and benefits of eating tasty healthy affordable food across our communities.”

Meals will be delivered once a week to each of the schools for those families participating in the project. Following the 12-week programme, the service will become available to everyone, other families and staff in the school. Well-Fed is the only food production business in Europe which does not use any Ultra-Processed ingredients in its meals.

The Director of Well-Fed, Robbie Davison, said: “We’re delighted to be bringing our healthy, affordable UPF-free meals into schools. This is an innovative and sustainable programme which will ensure families not only receive high quality meals but also cookery lessons to ensure they can continue to enjoy low-cost, healthy meals in the future.”

All households involved in the project will receive five days’ worth of food to feed a family of four every week for 12 weeks. The food is subsidised so households only pay £100 over the 12 weeks and will receive more than £650 worth of food.

Well-Fed produces 143 different meal types, including ready-to-eat meals and cook-at-home boxes which contain all the ingredients to create a meal from scratch.

The project is being part funded by the Welsh Governments’ Child poverty innovation and supporting communities’ grant.

Well-fed is already running food hubs in four churches across the Diocese of St Asaph and will be installing a set of refrigerated food lockers for meal distribution outside St Asaph Cathedral early next year. This will be the first locker location opened away from the company’s based in Shotton.

The Diocese of St Asaph looks after 49 Church in Wales Schools across north-east and mid-Wales, with more than 6,000 pupils in attendance.