During the last few months, some partnerships were consolidated and set up with new suppliers, who are all key stakeholders identified to build a qualitative public food service. Our daily menus offer:

• local and organic bread
• local and organic beef meat
• organic dairy products (cow milk and cheese, goat cheese) 
• local and organic vegetables prepared by a dedicated unit 
• organic soups and fruit purees made by a local canning factory.

From September 2022 on, we also decided to have only one meat-based menu per week (composed of four menus).

At the same time, one of our biggest challenges became?a success: the ban on plastic. That means the ban of all plastic containers from our food catering system and the development of a local network to implement a new and efficient no-plastic path from cooking the food to collecting and washing, once used, our new stainless-steel containers. Once we accomplished this huge change, we received so many requests to share good practices that we disseminated them widely, locally, and even further in France.

CROUSTI INOX  

The connections with other municipalities were really strong, especially on this topic, and it was an intense period of sharing knowledge and good practices, especially with our Fellow Cities Regions. We had some relevant contacts with our three FELs, who gave us reciprocal advice and inspiration.  

We continued to fight against food waste, setting up a partnership with the “Fair Supermaket” to define our donation process when there is food left over. Children from our Municipal Council are supporting this objective, as described previously in another Avignon FAL blogpost.

We are also exploring organic waste composting and launching a pilot action to compost our central kitchen’s biowaste.

Our partnership with the research institute INRAE allowed us to go further in new areas, such as exploring how children from our schools eat at home and their appreciation of school meals. e created a survey (online and face-to-face) that was disseminated through 12 schools. Some dedicated times were organized within some schools to meet the parents and speak about the school meals and canteen environment.  

PHOTO SURVEY  

To thank the schools that were involved in the survey project, 12 schools were invited by Avignon FAL on Thursday, June 15th, and Friday, June 16th, to a whole-day event about food.

Various local NGO’s proposed activities linked to the food chain, from agricultural topics to biowaste ones! Around 280 children from 8 years old to 11 had the opportunity to experiment with three different activities (two in the morning and one in the afternoon):

• LES JARDINS du COLIBRI: cooking easily without cooking appliances

• LES JEUNES POUSSES: making seedlings

• LES PETITES CHOSES: making seedlings within some recycled food containers from the central kitchen  

• TERRES de VRAI: exploring bees’ world 

• LATITUDES: thinking about advertising 

• SEMAILLES: speaking about seasonality 

• BLEUE BELLULES: speaking about «?kids menus?»  

• LES PETITS DEBROUILLARDS: making fruit juices with an incredibile «?bicycle blender?» 

• LE GRAND AVIGNON et ses ambassadeurs du tri: playing and sorting food packaging

•  La VILLE D’AVIGNON?: escape game about food waste and cooking workshop  

So many discoveries, including the use of dry toilets, especially rented for the event!

All day long, everything took place in a municipal park in the shade of pines, except for the «?cooking workshop?» that was held in a social center that accepted to lend its kitchen and welcome the children during these two days. Children were delighted by this cooking time, preparing some delicious and typical French biscuits called «?navettes?», sweet and salty.  

The final shared word from adults and children was: «?When can we repeat such a day??»  

I’m hoping the sown seeds during these two days will grow and give rise to beautiful projects about food within the schools.

The post What is sustainable food?? A challenge for Avignon schools within Avignon FAL! appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Are young people in Bra?ov thinking about their food source? What criteria determine their food choices? What is their vision of the state of the food system in 2040, when they will be adults? 

These were some of the questions we asked ourselves in the process of writing Bra?ov County’s food strategy. To find the answers to these questions and to make sure we integrate the youth perspective into our food strategy, we organised a meeting where we invited the local youth. We interacted with a group of 20 young people from Bra?ov, the participants having a background in the food and tourism fields of study.

We started the meeting by taking a trip down memory lane and we asked ourselves and the participants: what is the first taste we remember? The question was a great icebreaker and a great tool to identify the differences between generations, but also similarities (for instance how our first food-related memories are going back to our
grandparents’ recipes).

We then presented the FoodSHIFT2030 project and FAL Bra?ov innovations and objectives, before moving to the interactive session. We divided the participants into three groups, each taking turns to tackle three table-topics: the source of food in 2040, the type of producer in 2040 and what the plate will look like in 2040.

The results of the workshop brought a fresh perspective and a new wave of energy within FAL Bra?ov, the local youth being more focused on solutions rather than issues in the food system.

Their vision for the food system is quite complex, but we will summarise the key points:

• Top two places for sourcing food in 2040 will be the local markets and the community gardens. The youth also envisioned a multi-purpose centre, which can integrate the local markets (interaction space with local producers),
  community gardens, restaurants, cooking spaces and other educational activities.
• Robots and artificial intelligence will be much more involved in food production, providing greater fruit and vegetable adaptability to new climatic conditions. Furthermore, vertical or hydroponic production will be more common and available on store shelves.
• Small-scale producers, together with home and community gardens will become more popular among consumers, while imports will be decreasing and the source of the imports origin will change: food will come from closer to home, reducing the carbon footprint.
• The plate in 2040 will be tasty, diverse and nutritious, but also affordable.

These are only snippets from the entire results of the workshop. If you are interested in finding out more, please visit the HCC website.

FAL Bra?ov will continue to engage with local youth on food topics, to continually raise awareness on the importance of a sustainable local food system.

The post Young people’s vision of the food system in Bra?ov in 2040 appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

This short film is the result of their yearly thematic work about food, that is one of their working topic.

What is the Children City Council?

Since 2017, the City of Avignon has set up a Children City Council i.e. an institution consisted only of children, elected by children from all our city schools (public and private).

All school children have to choose two elected representatives per school, for a 2 years term, only within a targeted group from 8 to 10 years old children.

The children are stepping into elected representatives’ shoes so they are in charge to implement their projects (once validated by the Mayor herself!), organized into different thematic groups; so they:

• are informed about various issues
• collaborate with some municipal services, helped by 2 dedicated adults in charge of their group
• are empowered by experimenting their projects’ implementation from start to finish

It aims at increasing their awareness of citizenship, testing the elected representatives’ role and discovering various issues.

In 2021, there are 66 elected children from 33 public and private elementary schools.

Each child who candidates to the Council writes a statement of objectives to inform his schoolmates of his projects, program, and priorities.

Food is one of the thematic commissions such as:

• Food (institutional food service, fighting against food waste, balanced diet)
• Living together (social actions and solidarity)
• Save the planet (environment, sustainable development)
• My life my city  (equipment, security, education)
• Having fun in Avignon (culture and leisure activities)
• Taking care of your health (sports and health)

The making of this short film was one of the projects of the current mandate (ending at the end of June).

They initially researched information and figures (in France, in the whole world..) about food waste to have a large approach and to define the issues. Then, they decided to split the film into two short parts, proposing a second part highlighting the solutions linked to our daily behaviours (children and adults included…) that lead to food waste.

The short film shows by the children themselves some typical behaviours regarding food and propose in a dynamic way some tips to solve the problems.

As we wished to share it with our FoodSHIFT partners (and maybe with the children related to them), we made the English translation.

All this project is included within a larger project of « Zero Food Waste », currently in progress in our canteens : increasing children awareness by weights and challenges between children’ tables to be the less « food waste » producer…!

So…why don’t we hear the children’s  voices and follow their ideas and tips?

Let’s go to « Zero Food Waste », we need all your energy; looking forward to receiving any feedback about this project!

The post Children’s involvement against food waste – Avignon LAB appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

The Summer School will present the concept of Schools as Living Labs. Living labs are user-centred, open innovation ecosystems based on a systematic user co-creation approach integrating research and innovation processes in real life communities and settings. We engage the living lab methodology as a technique of crucial value in the heart of initiatives of open schools, which, in cooperation with other stakeholders, aspire to become agents of community well-being by creating new partnerships in their local communities.

The summer school builds the synergy of open schooling and the living labs methodology by working on the theme of the food system, which is linked to a very topical challenge faced by humanity, of huge societal, environmental and economic importance, as well as of direct relevance to science education and to ambitious current policy making at the European level (FOOD 2030 agenda).

The European Commission’s Expert Group working on FOOD 2030 conceptualizes the food system as incorporating ‘all elements and activities that relate to the production, processing, distribution, preparation and consumption of food, as well as its disposal. This includes the environment, people, processes, infrastructure, institutions and the effects of their activities on our society, economy, landscapes and climates’. Further, understanding citizen science and food citizenship is a rather key element that will be introduced. 

Objectives

The “Schools as sites for Food System Transformation” Summer School 2022 aims to explore and introduce innovative practices and approaches (living-lab methodology) for overcoming the growing divide between consumption and food knowledge by engaging schools in (re-)connecting young people with the land. With the goal to better connect schools to current research and the societal needs of the communities they live in; the Food Systems theme will act as the ideal testbed under which the Living Lab projects will be set up as an aspect that concerns all communities.

Methodology

The school utilizes the cooperation and interaction of community members by providing learning and information opportunities on the extremely important nutrition issues for tomorrow’s responsible citizens. Selected innovative projects and actions at national and European level will be presented by food system actors on which educators in collaboration with them will be invited not only to collaborate to further implement/accelerate the relevant food system innovations.

Hands-on learning opportunities, such as the cultivation of school gardens, interdisciplinary projects on the topic of the food and nutrition system, entrepreneurship initiatives, but also actions, such as the prevention of food waste and the proper management of waste within the school and beyond it will be introduced. Finally, activities will be designed following an inclusive approach based on the Universal Design for Learning principles.

Preparation

To ensure the proper preparation for the training course an online platform will act as a main hub of communication and for sharing and distributing preparatory material with the participants. Through this platform the participants will have access to all materials necessary for their preparation (suggested reading, digital tools, relevant websites, guidelines and support material etc.) and a common workspace. Moreover, all the information regarding the training course such as the course description, the programme, travelling and accommodation guidelines will also be accessible through the website.

Participants will familiarise themselves with the training topics as well as the course methodology by accessing the relevant resources, materials and tools. At this point we would like to offer some ideas and guidelines for your preparation. The summer school will use the SALL portal as a tool to develop innovative projects that fit the needs of the society in the topic of the food system transformation. You might see the following resources/webinars:

• Schools as Living Labs: A Roadmap for Schools
• Introducing RRI Principles in your school projects

Follow-up, Recognition, Evaluation

At the end of the course, following the presentation of their work on the last day of the course, participants will receive a training certificate that confirms the successful completion of the course and its objectives.

As members of the FoodSHIFT2030 community participants will have access to support provided by the training team, and they will be able to communicate with other educators in European countries, who have a common interest, share their ideas and experience and collaborate in joint activities.

In order to assess whether, and to what extent, the course has reached its objectives and expected results the participants will have to answer, during and at the end of the course, a set of relevant questionnaires that will be provided by the course providers. The results of the questionnaires/survey or a so-called evaluation report will be available to all participants of the course.

Programme

The FoodSHIFT2030 Summer School programme will be announced soon.

Fees & Funding

Course fee

The course fee is 420€ (70€/per day) and fully within the funding opportunities of the Erasmus+ Programme. The course fee covers:

• Expert lecturers for lectures, seminars and workshops
• All materials and equipment needed for the course
• Participation in the social programme & excursions (e.g. Sunset and dinner at Cape Sounio, excursion to the Acropolis and visit to the Acropolis Museum and dinner in downtown Athens, traditional night and farewell dinner, etc.)

Subsistence & accommodation

The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens.

We are happy to offer to all participants a single or double room with all-inclusive services (i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks and free of charge services for outdoors sports and recreational activities).

The costs for subsistence are also within the ceilings of the Erasmus+ programme for KA1 mobility actions.

Venue

The Summer School will be held at Golden Coast Hotel & Bungalows, an A-class/ 4-star sea-side hotel which stretches on the golden, sandy beach of the Marathon Bay, near the historic location of Marathon, at the outskirts of Athens. It is the area of Marathon, that has hosted since the times of myths when Theseus killed the terrible bull of Marathon, to the times of the Persian wars and the Battle of Marathon, further on to our days and the marathon race and Marathon Run, the emblematic symbol of man’s quest for freedom and the will to defend his most noble deeds which constitute the foundations of the Human civilization. The plethora of natural, historical sites and museums of the area reveal in all details this unique historical voyage. Participants are expected to arrive through the Athens International Airport, approximately 25 km (15,53 miles) distance from the hotel.

ERASMUS+ How to apply

School Heads and Teachers participation in the summer courses can be funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme.

In case your school or organization does not have the funds to cover the costs of your participation in the Summer School, there is another option: you can apply to be funded by the ERASMUS+ Programme. Please note that the Erasmus+ KA1 application can only be submitted by the school or the organization – no individual applications can be submitted.

What is ERASMUS+?

Erasmus+ is the European Commission’s Programme for education, training, youth, and sport for the period 2021-2027. As an integrated programme, Erasmus+ offers more opportunities for the mobility of learners and staff and cooperation across the education, training, and youth sectors and is easier to access than its predecessors, with simplified funding rules and a structure that aims to streamline the administration of the programme.

Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (KA1) provides a unique opportunity for teachers, headmasters, trainers, and other staff of educational institutions to participate in international training courses in different European countries. Schools, universities, vocational education and training, and adult education organizations are all eligible to receive full funding to attend courses under a KA1 mobility grant. The Erasmus+ KA1 grant covers all the costs to attend teacher training courses: including travel, subsistence, and course fee.

For up-to-date information about Erasmus+ please check the Programme’s website. Your school will need to apply to your country’s National Agency, who is also the one who will evaluate the proposal. Therefore, your National Agency is also a very good point to start for more information. Don’t forget to go through the New Programme Guide and you will have all you need to know.

The steps to apply for an Erasmus+ KA1 School Education Staff Mobility grant are:

1. Fill in the registration form to our Summer School with your details. This is an individual registration form, so if there are more than one participants from the same school, each one will have to submit a separate registration form. This way you have reserved a slot in the course in case your application for Erasmus+ funding is successful!
2. Register your school/organization here: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-esc/index/ , if not already registered.
3. Check the compliance with the programme criteria
4. Check the financial conditions
5. Fill in and submit the application form
6. Respect the deadline
7. Do not forget to inform us as soon as you get notified from your National Agency whether your grant application is accepted or rejected.

You can find all related information about submitting an Erasmus+ Application HERE.

Interested to participate in the FoodSHIFT2030 Summer School? We will be happy to guide you through the process! Please contact us at kriviou@[ea.gr] in case you need assistance and Register here!

Please note applications have now closed for this programme. Thanks for your interest.

The post Schools as sites for Food System Transformation: Summer School 2022 appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

• How much do we really know about food?
• Where it comes from, how it was sourced, what impact it has on us, our city and the environment?
• And how much do our children know?

Food education in schools is essential for igniting this interest early on and fostering a new generation of food citizens who see what we eat as part of the bigger picture in our fight against climate change and towards greater sustainability and health.

The shape this education takes can vary, and in this webinar, we’ll explore the school leading the FoodSHIFT Lab in Athens; Ellinogermaniki Agogi with focus on childhood Obesity prevention with use of big data; the innovative Food Schools in the Municipality of Copenhagen; as well as the UK-based charity School Food Matters and its Fresh Enterprise 2020 project that looks to unearth the next generation of food entrepreneurs.

Speakers:

• Athens FoodSHIFT Lab: Katerina Riviou (Athens Lab Coordinator, R&D Dept. Ellinogermaniki Agogi), and Ioannis Ioakeimidis (Associate Professor, Karolinska Institute)
• Copenhagen FoodSHIFT Lab: Emil Kiær Lund (Food School Coordinator, Municipality of Copenhagen) and Christian Bugge Henriksen (Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)
• Rachel Copus, Partnerships and Programmes Officer, School Food Matters, and students from Northolt High School, London
• Emily Norford, EAT (chair)

• Check the Q&A: All the questions and answers during the live webinar
• Click here to discover the webinar Presentation

The post Webinar: Education for a new generation of food citizens appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

In times of crisis, or a global pandemic, the need for quick, innovative solutions is ever-more pressing, as essential everyday systems such as our food supply chain become strained. These innovations can take many shapes, but it is the citizen-driven innovations radically challenging how we eat and produce food today.

In this FoodSHIFT webinar, we hear from a range of citizen-driven innovations driving change locally, which shift diet and consumption patterns as well as challenge models of food governance in a broken food system that has often left the vulnerable behind. We explore different models across Europe, as well as hear from EAT and its Shifting Urban Diets project with the FoodSHIFT Copenhagen Lab, before inviting our audience to share questions with our speaker panel.

Speakers:

Dirk Wascher, Innovation Manager, FoodSHIFT2030

Christine Pohl – Coordinator of the Berlin Food Policy Council

Emily Norford: Policy Manager, Urban Food Systems EAT

Maria Selenia, Compostiera di Comunita, Lecce, Italy

Stephanie Kennedy, Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming and FoodSHIFT network partner (chair)

This event was presented online via Zoom as part of the Eat@Home Forum, running from November 17 to December 13 2020.

See the Powerpoint presentation from the Webinar here.

See the Public Q&A from the webinar here.

The post Webinar: Shaking up the food system appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.

Project Description

The FoodSHIFT2030 project is leading an ambitious citizen-driven transition of the European food system towards a low carbon, circular future, including a shift to less meat and more plant-based diets. The FoodSHIFT2030 approach focuses on supporting innovation towards a fast transition of the European food system by 2030, which is necessary in order to address the pressing challenges for food and nutrition security, contribute to the EU commitment of reducing GHG emissions by at least 40% by 2030, and revitalize urban-rural linkages and partnerships to secure the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Our FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs

The nine FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs are located in the following front-runner cityregions: Greater Athens, Avignon, Barcelona, Bari, Brasov, Berlin, Greater Copenhagen, Oostende and Wroclaw.

Each FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab has defined an innovation focus and innovation actions to increase the technological and societal readiness levels of existing food system innovations within ten major themes and eleven SDGs across the Labs Each FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab will contribute and share knowledge within the FoodSHIFT2030 consortium to drive innovation upscaling and cross-pollination between the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs.

FOODSHIFT FoodSHIFT2030 takes departure in the EU Food 2030 Research and Innovation Policy Framework, the EU’s commitment under the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) It brings together a strong multi-actor consortium composed of local governments, SMEs, NGOs, universities, research institutes and network partners to address the H2020 programme topic CE-SFS-24-2019: Innovative and citizen-driven food system approaches in cities.

A fast citizen-driven food system transition will be achieved by creating a framework and efficient mechanisms for maturing, combining, upscaling and multiplying existing food system innovations through the operationalization of nine citizen-driven FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs and a further 27 FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs to be established in existing and emerging city-region food system hubs distributed across Europe. Furthermore, each of the nine FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs will initiate the establishment of three FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs to facilitate the food system transition in other cityregions.

Each FoodSHIFT Accelerator Lab will be facilitated by a steering committee consisting of a Lab leader, a Lab host and a Lab assistant from the city-region project partners.

The post What is FoodSHIFT 2030? appeared first on FoodSHIFT 2030.