CULTIVATE: Co-designing Food Sharing Innovation for Resilience

CULTIVATE is a four-year Innovation Action project funded by the EU Horizon Europe (GA#101083377). It is designed to support sustainable urban and peri-urban (UPU) food sharing and help transform urban food systems towards more just and sustainable. CULTIVATE will co-design a ground-breaking online social innovation support platform – The Food Sharing Compass – with food sharing initiatives (FSIs), local authorities, food supply actors, researchers and citizens in order to: map, track and monitor UPU food sharing landscapes; identify the costs, benefits and impacts of FSIs; help actors navigate governance architectures and ensure appropriate policies and regulations of food sharing; support increased citizen engagement in UPU food sharing; and create a community of practice for FSIs. Working collaboratively with multiple actors, CULTIVATE will develop more sustainable, resilient and healthy UPU food systems supporting inclusive climate mitigation and adaptation ambitions of the EU.

CULTIVATE uses a multi-actor approach to build sustainability and resilience in urban and peri-urban areas through a ground-breaking online social innovation support platform – The Food Sharing Compass. Built with and for five key stakeholder groups – food sharing initiatives, policy makers, food supply actors, researchers, and citizens – the platform will make it possible to navigate diverse
food sharing landscapes and cultures, in order to understand, develop, replicate, expand and strengthen sustainable food sharing in Europe, supporting the European Green Deal’s Action Plan, Food 2030, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU’s climate change ambitions. The open access Food Sharing Compass will comprise five innovative tools:
1. The SHARECITY200 Database: an interactive automated mapping, tracking and monitoring database of food sharing initiatives that will add more than 100 new locations to the SHARECITY100 Database;
2. The Food Sharing Calculator: which enables comprehensive and holistic assessment of the costs, benefits and impacts of food sharing for all stakeholders;
3. The Menu of Good Governance: which provides options for developing policy making which facilitates sustainable food sharing;
4. The Library of Citizen Engagement: which supports establishing, expanding and maintaining inclusive participation in sustainable food sharing;
5. The sustainable food sharing Community of Practice: which will be established through a bespoke Amplification Programme to optimise the potential for mutual learning and exploitation of the Food Sharing Compass well beyond the project.
In essence, CULTIVATE will establish the EU as the global frontrunner in the development of resilient and inclusive food sharing economies, identifying drivers and implementation gaps and challenging existing theories and practices which currently constrain sustainable food sharing.