Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FOOD TRAILS (Building pathways towards FOOD 2030-led urban food policies)
Reporting period: 2020-10-16 to 2022-04-15
Meeting the challenges of providing European citizens with affordable, safe and nutritious food and of creating healthier and more sustainable City Region Food Systems raises the need for the development of integrated urban food policies that are able to engage with the complexity of the food system.
Food Trails is a four-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project aiming to transform urban food systems in 11 cities, in the field of the front-running policy framework of FOOD 2030 and of Farm to Fork EU Strategy.
The project is also rooted in the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). Indeed, the overall objective of the Food Trails project is to translate the Pact's commitments to integrated urban food policies into concrete measurable, and long-term progress toward more resilient, safe, fair, and diverse urban food systems in Europe.
11 European cities, with 3 universities and 5 international stakeholders on food, are co-designing pilot actions as leverage points for FOOD 2030 urban food policies development with an expected impact on the quality of life of 8 million European citizens.
Each partner city set up a living lab that will enable collaboration between local authorities and the wider range of local stakeholders to design food policy actions to empower the community; make the farm-to-fork journey sustainable; promote the reduction of food waste; promote environmentally friendly behavior change and ensure people have healthy and secure diets.
Food Trails facilitates collaboration among cities and researchers to encourage knowledge sharing, replication, and scaling up of best practices.
In fact, one of the project’s key aims is to strengthen the network of cities committed to changing their food systems to be more sustainable and beneficial. Food Trails aims to achieve this goal by transforming mayors into trendsetters to generate impacts among a wider set of cities.
Food Trails is a four-year EU-funded Horizon 2020 project aiming to transform urban food systems in 11 cities, in the field of the front-running policy framework of FOOD 2030 and of Farm to Fork EU Strategy.
The project is also rooted in the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP). Indeed, the overall objective of the Food Trails project is to translate the Pact's commitments to integrated urban food policies into concrete measurable, and long-term progress toward more resilient, safe, fair, and diverse urban food systems in Europe.
11 European cities, with 3 universities and 5 international stakeholders on food, are co-designing pilot actions as leverage points for FOOD 2030 urban food policies development with an expected impact on the quality of life of 8 million European citizens.
Each partner city set up a living lab that will enable collaboration between local authorities and the wider range of local stakeholders to design food policy actions to empower the community; make the farm-to-fork journey sustainable; promote the reduction of food waste; promote environmentally friendly behavior change and ensure people have healthy and secure diets.
Food Trails facilitates collaboration among cities and researchers to encourage knowledge sharing, replication, and scaling up of best practices.
In fact, one of the project’s key aims is to strengthen the network of cities committed to changing their food systems to be more sustainable and beneficial. Food Trails aims to achieve this goal by transforming mayors into trendsetters to generate impacts among a wider set of cities.
Good fellowship among the Food Trails project partners resulted in the production of 28 deliverables in the first 18 months of activity. The project began with a comprehensive mapping of the knowledge on urban food policies and City Region Food System approach, developing several reports on: food policies and related actions in Milan Urban Food Policy Pact cities in Europe, relevant food initiatives contributing to FOOD 2030 priorities, urban food-related participatory policies and financial tools.
The partners started developing a relation with the cities of the project, to lay the foundations for the co-design and implementation of Living Labs and pilots. They also identified best practices and learning needs within the 11 cities.
Partners developed a tailored tool for the design of pilots, the Food Policy Action Canvas, that includes sections to guide the design phase of food system action (value proposition, key stakeholders, beneficiaries, key activities, key resources, beneficiaries’ relationships, key channels, main barriers, main drivers). Plus, the partners facilitated the use of the Theory of Change for cities, as a tool for monitoring the evolution of the Living Labs and pilots’ co-design work.
The cities provided a preliminary stakeholder mapping for their Living Labs. Cities identified relevant value propositions at the local level, produced 25 Food Policy Action Canvas, and kickstarted 11 Living Labs.
The monitoring of cities’ effort led to the mapping of more than 200 existing indicators for urban food system and the establishment of a framework for impact evaluation.
The project launched an Investors Living Lab gathering professional investment actors with the aim to activate new financing paradigms for projects promoted by the Food Policies for the improvement of local food ecosystems.
Food Trails committed to enhance synergies with EU institutions, projects, initiatives, private sector actors and others, organizing advocacy events and meetings. The partners developed a replication framework and a dedicated methodology.
To follow the momentum on urban food policies and share the project experience with other European cities, Food Trails participated as a consortium at the MUFPP Global Forum 2021 in Barcelona.
The project built its website: https://foodtrails.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/ with 26 articles and 11 dedicated sections for each partner city. The project created the visual identity, and set up LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. The project established a weekly meeting among key partners; convened three progress meetings with all partners; set up an internal documents’ repository. In order to ensure good governance of the project and the achievement of objectives on time, a decentralized project management structure, with clear responsibilities, has been established. The partners also established a "Quality Management Plan," ensuring that it was applied to all project outputs, a "Risk Management Plan," which defined risks and proposed mitigation measures, and a "Data Management Plan," which offered a summary of the type of data collected and how it would be stored, managed and used.
The partners started developing a relation with the cities of the project, to lay the foundations for the co-design and implementation of Living Labs and pilots. They also identified best practices and learning needs within the 11 cities.
Partners developed a tailored tool for the design of pilots, the Food Policy Action Canvas, that includes sections to guide the design phase of food system action (value proposition, key stakeholders, beneficiaries, key activities, key resources, beneficiaries’ relationships, key channels, main barriers, main drivers). Plus, the partners facilitated the use of the Theory of Change for cities, as a tool for monitoring the evolution of the Living Labs and pilots’ co-design work.
The cities provided a preliminary stakeholder mapping for their Living Labs. Cities identified relevant value propositions at the local level, produced 25 Food Policy Action Canvas, and kickstarted 11 Living Labs.
The monitoring of cities’ effort led to the mapping of more than 200 existing indicators for urban food system and the establishment of a framework for impact evaluation.
The project launched an Investors Living Lab gathering professional investment actors with the aim to activate new financing paradigms for projects promoted by the Food Policies for the improvement of local food ecosystems.
Food Trails committed to enhance synergies with EU institutions, projects, initiatives, private sector actors and others, organizing advocacy events and meetings. The partners developed a replication framework and a dedicated methodology.
To follow the momentum on urban food policies and share the project experience with other European cities, Food Trails participated as a consortium at the MUFPP Global Forum 2021 in Barcelona.
The project built its website: https://foodtrails.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/ with 26 articles and 11 dedicated sections for each partner city. The project created the visual identity, and set up LinkedIn and Twitter profiles. The project established a weekly meeting among key partners; convened three progress meetings with all partners; set up an internal documents’ repository. In order to ensure good governance of the project and the achievement of objectives on time, a decentralized project management structure, with clear responsibilities, has been established. The partners also established a "Quality Management Plan," ensuring that it was applied to all project outputs, a "Risk Management Plan," which defined risks and proposed mitigation measures, and a "Data Management Plan," which offered a summary of the type of data collected and how it would be stored, managed and used.
Food Trails is setting the scene on the role of cities as drivers of change in food system transformation. By establishing a city-centric approach to the work of the project, Food Trails is creating a unique example of how local authorities can be supported by scientific partners and frontrunning organizations in the set-up of Living Labs, co-design of pilots, and urban food policies definition. The goal of the project is to build a common pathway toward food policies that can act at the local level, exploiting the potential of each specific context and integrating into this process European policies and frameworks such as FOOD 2030.
Connecting local authorities, scientific partners, and competent stakeholders with strong expertise in food system sustainability are proving to be a successful strategy, providing municipalities with updated tools and theoretical background. Food Trails cities are working to enhance the political commitment at the local level, laying the foundation for a long-lasting shift in the governance of the local food systems, in the same way, the project partners established fruitful relations with other EU-funded projects, cities initiatives, and institutions on these issues.
The project will continue consolidating this approach, making use of the next period to launch more communications, events, workshops, and advocacy work with influential EU stakeholders.
Connecting local authorities, scientific partners, and competent stakeholders with strong expertise in food system sustainability are proving to be a successful strategy, providing municipalities with updated tools and theoretical background. Food Trails cities are working to enhance the political commitment at the local level, laying the foundation for a long-lasting shift in the governance of the local food systems, in the same way, the project partners established fruitful relations with other EU-funded projects, cities initiatives, and institutions on these issues.
The project will continue consolidating this approach, making use of the next period to launch more communications, events, workshops, and advocacy work with influential EU stakeholders.