Cities

The first step of the CULTIVATE project will take place in three specific hub locations, whose municipalities will play the role of pathfinders for policy innovation around food sharing. Each city will be the site for the initial field data collation and activation of the Compass tools through their innovative FSIs.

Four broad types of food sharing practices are emerging, which are useful for categorizing and comparing activities in cities. Some FSIs focus on redistributing surplus food, others on food growing and thus production and self-sufficiency, and still others on collective cooking & eating as acts of social sharing practices that strengthen communities. There are also multifunctional hubs that combine several types of food sharing in one place simultaneously. For example, a community garden may develop a community café where surplus food from the garden can be used to create meals for collective consumption.