Sustainable Food Team (Food Sense Wales)

Katie Palmer

Head of Food Sense Wales

Katie heads up the Food Sense Wales team, a team hosted by the Public Health team and Cardiff and Vale Health Charity. Katie has an MSc in Nutrition from Kings College London and in Food Policy from City University. She has worked in the world of food her entire career with experience in both the private sector, and third and public sector (including on the Food Standards Agency’s Welsh Food Advisory Committee and Welsh Government’s Food and Drink Industry Board). 

Katie founded Food Sense Wales in 2018 after being employed by the CAV Public Health team to establish Food Cardiff in 2014. She sits on the WLGA’s School Holiday Enrichment Programme Advisory Group and was one of the team of four who created the multi award winning Food and Fun programme in Cardiff in 2015.

Katie is a founding member of the Veg Power Board as well as being one of the founding members of Food Policy Alliance Cymru.  Through a focus on local Food Partnerships and Horticulture, Katie’s passion lies in unlocking the potential for local food systems to inspire positive change.

Lucinda Jones

Food Cardiff Co-ordinator

Lucinda is the Food Cardiff Co-ordinator within Food Sense Wales. She has over 8 years’ experience working in the private sector on a range of sustainability and supply chain programmes, most recently in the Sustainable Sourcing team at Unilever where she led the global Smallholder Farmer Livelihoods programme, working with a wide network of partners to deliver positive outcomes for farmers and more resilient supply chains. As part of her work, Lucinda spent over a year based in Indonesia, working as part of the local sustainability team on key ingredients such as tea and coconut.  Outside of work, Lucinda has a strong affinity to farming owing to her upbringing on a small farm on the Welsh/English border near Hay-on-Wye. Lucinda is a passionate hiker, enjoys exploring new places and spending quality time back on the farm.

Pearl Costello

Sustainable Food Places Co-ordinator (Food Sense Wales)

Pearl is a food systems change-maker and has led Food Cardiff since 2019, sitting within the Food Sense Wales team. 

Food Cardiff is a city-wide partnership of individuals and organisations. It acts as a hub for connecting the people and projects working to promote healthy, environmentally sustainable and ethical food across the city; it acts as a voice for wider change.

Pearl previously led an ambitious and transformational sustainability programme at the Royal Agricultural University, winning multiple awards including the Guardian University Award for Sustainability Project in 2016. She also developed innovative engagement and behaviour change programmes with the National Union of Students.  She holds a First-Class BSc in Marine Biology and Social Ecology (specialising in animal behaviour) and a MSc (Distinction) in Environmental Design of Buildings (specialising in human behaviour).

Siân-Elin Davies

Communication and Engagement Manager

Having worked in the fields of Communications, PR and Events for over twenty years, Siân-Elin joined Food Sense Wales in October 2020 as Communications and Engagement Manager. 

As well as leading on Food Sense Wales’ Communications and Engagement strategies and outputs, Siân-Elin also sits on the Healthy Weight Healthy Wales Communications, Engagement and Campaigns Group; the Wales Healthy Start Network and is a steering group member of Carmarthenshire’s Food Partnership, Bwyd Sir Gâr Food.  She also supports Food Policy Alliance Cymru with the group’s Communications delivery and is a Parent Governor at her local Primary School.

Prior to joining Food Sense Wales, Siân-Elin worked as a Principal Communications and PR Officer at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.  Before that, she spent several years as an Event Producer at BBC Wales and also worked at ITV Wales as a Press Officer.

Siân-Elin started her career working as a Marketing and PR Officer for a theatre company and is still as passionate as she was then about engaging and communicating with a range of diverse communities and audiences in creative, relevant and innovative ways.