With the Brecon Food Festival about to happen, October is a good month to think about food.

Shakespeare wrote of the “teeming autumn, big with rich increase” and he could have been looking at my apple trees. They are absolutely laden with fruit this year. I’ve also picked lots of plums, blackberries and elderberries and my freezer is filling.

Most of our food doesn’t come from our gardens, though there are lots of brilliant gardeners throughout our county. Mostly we rely on farmers and growers, and we know better in Powys than in much of the rest of the UK how important farmers are.

Harvest festivals are much less common nowadays than they used to be, but they are still held in many chapels and churches throughout Powys, often during this month of October. They are opportunities to express gratitude for what the land provides and for those who work on it.

Harvest festivals also often remember those who don’t have food. We all think of malnourished children in Africa, but there are big problems closer to home as well.

Powys has foodbanks in Brecon, Knighton, Llandrindod, Llanidloes, Machynlleth, Newtown, Rhayader, Welshpool and Ystradgynlais. Run often by committed volunteers, these food banks are nothing short of a life-line for families throughout our county, and weall should support them in any way we can.

This month I will be visiting Newtown Food Surplus. They collect surplus food from local businesses and then pass it on to people who need it. In this way they stop food being thrown away and help people who are struggling with the cost of living crisis. It’s a brilliant double benefit– sustainability and poverty alleviation.It will be an opportunity to thank those who work there for all they do for our community

The great privilege you have as High Sheriff is to be able to express thanks on behalf of the whole community for what people like Newtown Food Surplus do. I’d be delighted to hear from anyone else who thinks I can help their organisation.

Email: [email protected] or message on Facebook: High Sheriff of Powys, or X @USPowysHS.