Project

CULTIVATE: Co-designing food sharing innovation for Resilience

The EU-funded CULTIVATE project will support greater sustainability and resilience around food through a ground-breaking online social innovation platform – the Food Sharing Compass. Designed with and for food sharing initiatives (from seed sharing and social dining to surplus food redistribution and community composting), policymakers, food supply actors, researchers and citizens, the platform will make it possible to navigate sustainable food sharing landscapes. It comprises five tools: the SHARECITY200 Database (mapping, tracking and monitoring initiatives), the Food Sharing Calculator (assessing costs, benefits and impacts), the Menu of Good Governance (options for policies to facilitate sustainable food sharing), the Library of Citizen Engagement (cataloguing tools for expanding food sharing activity) and the sustainable food sharing Community of Practice for food sharing initiatives.

Background

In a world experiencing continuous and unexpected changes, urban and peri-urban (UPU) food systems are replete with inequities and inequalities that make them fragile and vulnerable to shocks. An urgent transition towards more just and sustainable food systems is required.

Many FSIs already contribute towards this transition yet their activities are often hampered by complex, fragmented food governance, uncertain finance, and insecure tenure.

Through the Food Sharing Compass CULTIVATE addresses the problem, helping cities navigate towards resilient and sustainable food sharing. The project identifies drivers and implementation gaps, and challenges existing theories and practices which currently constrain food sharing.

Distinctive implementation steps structure the project, each being indispensable to deliver on the objectives. The project engages the Cultivators (FSIs, policy makers, food supply actors, researchers, and citizens) throughout all the phases.

Project description

CULTIVATE will achieve several objectives through inter and trans-disciplinary research by using a multi-actor approach and a phased co-design methodology. One of the first purposes of the project is to increase knowledge and awareness of the concept of urban food-sharing and of its impact on the society, the planet, and the economy. Second, selected urban and peri-urban communities will develop and strengthen their food-sharing economies as a step towards more innovative, inclusive, sustainable, and resilient local food system and supply chains. Finally, the studies and tools provided by CULTIVATE will support the prevention and reduction of food waste.

The WUR together with Utrecht Municipality and CASCOLAND are working on WP5: Citizen Engagement in Food Sharing.

The objectives of the WP5 are to:

  • Understand the evolution of social norms, cultures, and local conditions and their impact on citizen engagement in food sharing innovations - with particular attention to COVID-19 to identify mechanisms which help to remove barriers to engagement;
  • Identify, assess, test, refine, and validate novel and existing methods for citizen engagement in socially innovative food sharing that are responsive to these social norms, cultures, and local conditions;
  • Activate insights to create an open access, user-friendly Library of Citizen Engagement to enhance opportunities and overcome barriers for sustainable UPU food sharing.

Results

So far the results consist of the delivery of a month-long field intervention in Rijnvliet through the Lab&Kitchen method developed and implemented by CASCOLAND; The delivery of 3 Serious Games Prototypes co-designed and tested with Dutch-based food sharing initiatives, policy makers and citizens; The creation and expansion of a data-base of citizen engagement mechanism collected through desk research and tested at various events.