A Fresh Approach to Community Wellbeing
In early 2025, one of FareShare Cymru’s newest community food members — launched their Grow Rhondda’s Welcome Platter Lunch Club. A monthly gathering that transforms surplus food into shared meals, meaningful conversation, and stronger community ties.
Located in Tynewydd, Grow Rhondda is a grassroots organisation dedicated to sustainable food growing, climate action, and community wellbeing. Through a range of initiatives, they actively engage local residents in hands-on training, gardening projects, and social activities. As a result, these efforts create valuable opportunities for connection, learning, and support. All the more essential during the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Welcome Platter: More Than a Meal
The Welcome Platter Lunch Club is held at Y Pot Bach, Grow Rhondda’s community coffee shop and hub. Using surplus food supplied weekly by FareShare Cymru, volunteers prepare a hot, nutritious meal for guests to share in a warm and friendly space.
The first event featured Chicken Madras with rice and handmade naan bread. Guests quickly filled the room with lively conversation and laughter. One attendee shared:
It’s been months since I’ve eaten with anyone else — this was more than just food to me.
At the second session, which FareShare Cymru attended, the menu included duck breast with cherry balsamic glaze, courgette and aubergine in a tomato sauce, wilted spinach, and duck fat roast potatoes. A food-themed quiz encouraged guests to try new ingredients and sparked friendly conversations around the tables.
Guests shared that these sessions offer far more than just a warm meal. More importantly, they foster a genuine sense of belonging and connection — something that can often be difficult to find elsewhere.
It’s great that you can try new things as fresh vegetables can be expensive and if you don’t like it, it’ll end up in waste.
Connecting Through Food
Service members have said the club makes it easier to try new foods, explore recipes, and enjoy healthy meals—without cost or pressure. One guest, Keith, travels in by bus from the valley and plans to return each month for the Welcome Platter. He’s also interested in joining Grow Rhondda’s Men’s Shed project on other weeks. Together, these activities show how Grow Rhondda’s initiatives connect and support people in different, meaningful ways.
As a result, interest in the club has grown significantly, with numerous community members now requesting private functions and suggesting fresh ideas for future menus.
Community Impact
While impactful on its own, the Welcome Platter Lunch Club is just one part of Grow Rhondda’s broader efforts to address food insecurity, social isolation, and poor mental health. In addition to the lunch club, their growing network of community projects includes:
Y Pot Bach – A welcoming hub offering training opportunities, cost-of-living support, climate action initiatives, a repair café, tool loan scheme, community fridge, and a local growers network.
Roots 2 Fruits – Provides practical food support and healthy recipes made with locally grown produce, in partnership with RHA Wales and Public Health Wales.
Men Sheds Tynewydd/Treorchy – Supports isolated men through hands-on workshops, gardening activities, and peer connection.
Care 2 Grow – A health and social care project that creates hospital memorial gardens, with over 200 volunteers referred by local GPs.
Home Grown – A project launched during the pandemic that continues to support over 400 people at home with growing advice and resources.
Furthermore, each project is firmly rooted in the same guiding principles: sustainability, wellbeing, and community-led action.
What’s Next?
Grow Rhondda plans to further develop the Welcome Platter Lunch Club by:
- Introducing themed lunches inspired by world cuisines
- Involving more local volunteers and guest cooks
- Adding music, storytelling, and creative workshops
- Gathering ongoing feedback to shape future sessions
As with all their initiatives, the goal remains to empower the community, reduce food waste, and build lasting connections through accessible and inclusive events.
Final Thoughts
Grow Rhondda’s Welcome Platter Lunch Club demonstrates that surplus food can do much more than simply fill plates. Indeed, it has the power to bring people together, enhance wellbeing, and ignite lasting positive change.
As a result, we are proud to support their mission through our food redistribution network and in turn eagerly look forward to watching this inspiring project continue to grow.
To learn more about Grow Rhondda, visit their website or check out their Facebook page.
Additionally, if you want to find out how FareShare Cymru supports communities across Wales or to become a member. Please get in touch with us here.