Good food isn’t just about what’s on the plate – it’s about confidence, connection, and having the skills to make healthy choices doable in real life. That’s one reason the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership exists: it brings together people from organisations across the county borough with a shared aim — to help ensure sustainable, healthy food is accessible to all, using a collaborative approach across the whole food system.

A practical place to start is cooking. When children learn simple, hands-on food skills early, it can shape habits for life; not in a preachy way, but by making healthy food feel normal, achievable and even fun.

Connecting Tondu Primary with Cooking Together Wales

As part of the Partnership’s work to strengthen food education and skills locally, Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership helped connect Tondu Primary School with Cooking Together Wales to deliver cooking and nutrition sessions for pupils.

Cooking Together Wales provides hands-on “healthy cooking” experiences in schools and communities across Wales, with a focus on essential life skills and positive, practical nutrition messages. Their workshops are designed to reinforce health and wellbeing through cooking, and to show that eating well can be affordable, interesting, and realistic.

Why this kind of project matters

For many families, the biggest barrier to ‘eating well’ isn’t a lack of care – it’s time, cost, confidence, and headspace. School-based cooking sessions help tackle that from the ground up. They can:

  • build real-life skills (basic prep, simple meals, food safety)
  • improve understanding of food and nutrition in a way kids remember
  • make cooking feel social and enjoyable, not stressful
  • support longer-term wellbeing by boosting confidence and independence

We’ve seen in other local cooking projects supported by the Partnership that hands-on sessions can boost participants’ wellbeing, connection and confidence exactly the kind of ripple effect that strengthens communities.

Cabinet Member for Education and Youth Services, Councillor Martyn Jones said,“These sessions are about more than sharing recipes – they’re about confidence, health and giving people practical skills that fit real lives. By connecting schools and community venues with Cooking Together Wales, we’re helping more people across Bridgend County Borough access the tools to eat well, waste less and feel good about food.”

Jen Davis from Cooking Together Wales said, “I am really enjoying delivering the cooking workshops with Bridgend Food Partnership. Seeing the children’s enthusiasm for basic ingredients and how they discover new foods and flavours is great.

Within the community sessions and youth protection projects it’s all about social interaction and gaining confidence. Cooking is a great opportunity to relax and open in a safe space, and it’s lovely to watch as the weeks progress how the attendees open up, engage with each other and take a real pride in their cooking.


We use recipes with basic ingredients to show how easy, nutritious and cheap it can be compared to relying on convenience foods or takeaways. We want to encourage people to get out to their local shops and farm producers, and back in the kitchen to create meals to enjoy as a family or group.”

Get involved

If you’re a school, community group, or organisation in Bridgend County Borough and you’d like to explore food skills sessions, partnerships, or local collaborations, the Bridgend Sustainable Food Partnership is here to help make those connections. Contact us here.

To learn more about Cooking Together Wales and the sessions they deliver, visit: https://www.cookingtogether.co.uk.