Supermarkets often chuck out food after its sell by date, which ends up in landfill despite being perfectly edible. There are some brilliant schemes that rescue this food and ensure it does not go to waste. One such project is Dinkydoo at Goytre Village Hall. I visited the ‘wellbeing café’ for a coffee morning and saw first-hand the wonderful work being down in the local community to reduce food wastage. Everything is free but people are asked to consider making a donation if they are able to help towards the cost of petrol for the volunteers who collect the food. It is open 10am until 12 noon most mornings apart from a Tuesday and Thursday.
The Commonwealth Games has drawn to a close and what an extraordinary event it has been – the legacy of which will drive trade, jobs and growth across the West Midlands for years to come. Birmingham was a fantastic host city and has cemented the UK’s reputation for hosting major sporting events on the global stage. Congratulations to the volunteers, crowds, athletes and organisers for a magnificent 11 days. I was particularly thrilled to see Caldicot boxer Rosie Eccles win a well-deserved gold medal for Wales in the women’s light-middleweight division and carry the Wales flag at the closing ceremony. I first met Rosie when she was under the watchful eye of Chepstow Amateur Boxing Club and have followed her career with great interest.
We held an excellent National Eisteddfod in Monmouthshire at Abergavenny’s Castle Meadows in 2016 and it is great to see this much-loved celebration of culture and Welsh language return with a bang after a two-year hiatus due to the Covid pandemic. In my role as Wales Office minister, I was very pleased to pay a visit to the eisteddfod in Tregaron last week and take part in the Welsh language version of Question Time, Pawb a’i Farn. The good weather and friendly atmosphere had clearly had a benign influence on my fellow panellists representing Labour and Plaid Cymru as we seemed to be largely in agreement until a few minutes from the end of the show.
*Published in the Monmouthshire Beacon on 10 August 2022 and Abergavenny Chronicle on 11 August 2022*