Going from 0% to 70% ‘sustainable food’¹ in three years, and more than 50% local: “We're not out of work!” says Davide Archadipane, from Intercommunale de Soins Spécialisés de Liège (ISoSL). ISoSL is the inter-municipal association providing 4,000 meals per day to more than half of the elementary school canteens in Liège, Belgium. 

Since the launch of the URBACT BioCanteens #2 Transfer Network (2021-2022), ISoSL has undertaken a 360° transformation of its practices: adapting menus and integrating organic, local, healthy, fresh and seasonal products, setting up a working dynamic between the cooks and the city’s schools, measuring food waste, developing a mobile meal-ordering application to alleviate administrative work for schools and provide cooks with accurate order numbers, organising visits to producers with the cooks, the purchasing department and the dieticians, modifying six out of nine public food contracts for schools and nurseries, with the objective of 100% local, organic food by 2024. 

All of these transformations put together have culminated in a profound change in the ISoSL system. In anticipation of the next EU City Lab, which will take place in Liège, this article explores the city’s integrated food system and, in particular, the role of public procurement in combatting food waste.

A strategy for an integrated food system

At the beginning of 2021, ISoSL decided to take a systemic approach to its collective catering, encompassing four main areas of work: purchasing policy, production management, waste reduction and awareness of sustainable food. 

A lot more could be written on each aspect of this approach, and the Liège food ecosystem as a whole. For the purpose of this article, it is worth examining a few prompts for the strategy: How can the city change the way it buys so that sustainable products enter the kitchens? What constitutes a purchasing strategy that is consistent with the values of sustainable food? How can ISoSL’s purchasing power be leveraged to invest in local, sustainable and resilient food systems?

ISoSL inter-municipal association central kitchen preparing 12,000 meals per day (Photo credit, Strategic Design Scenarios).

Revolutioning food procurement processes

Agricultural issues are not always well understood by those who are not involved in the sector. That's why ISoSL systematically visits producers and farms when analysing offers. “We adapt our needs to what the region has to offer, rather than the other way round”. For Davide Arcadipane, it's a real paradigm shift when it comes to sourcing, moving towards fresh, seasonal produce, from short distribution channels and as raw as possible. Meeting producers is essential. It allows cooks and dieticians to understand the history of products and the diversity of local production.   

The timing for change is also linked to ISoSL's purchasing policy: markets end and start at very specific times. The city's purchasing department has drawn up a schedule of contracts to be renewed, which are dealt with one after the other.

The work always starts with an inventory of requirements: what products for which usage? What quantities? How often? Etc. In short, all the information relevant to the preparation of meals, and therefore to the award of a new public tender.

The next step is to carry out research in the field to find out which local producers and businesses could meet these needs. It's important to know what's on offer so that you can draw up appropriate specifications. The offer, here, must be understood as the overall offer at a given moment, in a given territory and not as the submission of a bid by a tenderer. 

Once ISoSL is certain that all the suppliers have a range of products that can be used to produce healthy, diversified menus, new selection criteria are incorporated into the public procurement tender. Public procurement legislation is not easy to use, and it is not always easy to find the right criteria. A multi-disciplinary team made up of the purchasing department and legal experts (both internal and external to ISoSL) is working on introducing criteria to ensure that products are environmentally friendly, respect animal welfare, are healthy and fair, and do not contribute to food waste. This is followed by a classic procedure involving the submission of tenders, culinary tests, appointment of the supplier, etc.

“On paper, it looks fairly simple to introduce sustainable products into community kitchens, but in reality it's rather complex and requires a lot of energy”, continues Davide. “There are logistical, human and financial obstacles, in particular the duality between the demand for low prices from canteen users and the need to offer remunerative prices to producers”. 

Going beyond the canteen to tackle food waste

In Belgium, the ‘hot meal’ in the canteen often has a bad reputation. In fact, only a dozen percent of schoolchildren eat there. The others make do with their ‘sandwich box’ brought from home, which rarely contains a balanced, healthy and varied meal. Canteens are often noisy places where children eat in a hurry, without being accompanied or encouraged to taste. In Belgium, lunchtime is also considered ‘non-school time’. It is therefore a time not financed by the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in charge. As a result, the tendency is often to neglect these moments, to have the children looked after by ‘auxiliaries’, i.e, generally unqualified, untrained staff. The change in school canteens, while crucial, will affect and raise awareness in far fewer people than in other European countries where school canteens are mainstream. This is another reason not to stop there, to extend these policies to all collective catering and to develop general awareness.

The URBACT BioCanteens #2 Transfer Network played a key role in the development of an integrated local food approach in Liège, protecting both the health of citizens and the environment. Within the framework of BioCanteens, the ISoSL kitchens selected nine pilot schools from which an in-depth diagnosis of the lunchtime process was carried out. Within the framework of this diagnosis, particular attention was paid to the reduction of waste. “The observation phase made it possible to point out three critical moments where this waste was visually present”, explains Julien Chapaux, in charge of conducting the first diagnosis for Liège, “during production and cooking of meals, during the packaging and distribution from the central kitchen and during consumption in the schools.”

First, during production, daily variations in meal orders range from 100–350 meals. To avoid running out of meals during packing and serving in the schools, the cooks had taken to systematically producing more. Every day, the kitchen therefore provided for a safety margin, which inevitably led to waste during production.    

Second, when the meals are put into the insulated containers to be sent to the schools (hot link distribution), the staff have a very short time to pack the 2,500 meals for the 150 schools. Observations have shown that the staff do not always have the same rigour at the beginning of the packaging line as at the end. This led to differences in the weight of the food in the insulated containers for the first schools served and those on the last round.

Finally, during the consumption of the meal, it was observed that there was generally too much (or sometimes not enough) food in the insulated containers, but above all that many children did not finish their plates.

In February 2022, Liège implemented a series of production, packaging and consumption weightings. A student carried out eight weeks of analysis (one week per school). It was measured that the overall waste of meals was 51%. For soup, the figure was 57%. These dramatic outcomes confirmed the first batch of observations with quantitative figures convincing ISoSL and all city canteens’ schemes to take action. A series of measures were taken: application of meal ordering with strict ordering deadlines, weighing at the packaging line, awareness-raising in schools, etc.

More sustainable and healthy meal at the canteen (photo credit: MAdil).

When a bottom-up movement meets city governance

Thinking about the market in a sustainable way is a complex process. It's not enough to change one criterion or another, or to demand more local, high-quality food. The key to making these changes is co-construction and a shared determination to achieve them, the involvement of all the players. “ISoSL and the city of Liège would not have been able to put all this in place without the Ceinture Alimentaire Terre Liégeoise”, states Vérionique Biquet, Project Manager for Healthy and sustainable food for all within the Social Cohesion Plan of Liège. “As public players, we don't have the capacity to mobilise the local ecosystem of producers without the support of local experts and facilitators”. 

The Liège Food Belt (Ceinture Alimentaire Terre Liégeoise) emerged from more than 400 stakeholders in the region, who joined forces about 14 years ago. There was a need for a platform to support and structure this mobilisation among producers, market gardeners, organic groceries, sustainable canteens and restaurants. The rapid change achieved by ISoSL and Liège has been highly facilitated by the existence of a strong and large network of engaged stakeholders. 

The tighter collaboration between the Liège Food Belt and the public authorities of Liège generates a booming dynamic within the local healthy and sustainable food ecosystem. In parallel to the transformation of school canteens, a large range of initiatives have popped up in recent years, involving various organisations and institutions.

Visit to a local sustainable food producer (Photo credit: MAdil).

The MAdil, Maison de l'Alimentation durable et inclusive de Liège (Sustainable and Inclusive Food House) provides the opportunity to discover, test and learn about good food practices, including environmental protection and the fight against food waste. Activities cover culinary workshops, guest tables, walks around edible wild plants, meetings with local producers, introductions to market gardening techniques, and more.

HORIZON, a logistics centre dedicated to short circuits, has been operational for a year at the Marché Matinal de Liège in Droixhe, with storage space for local coopératives in particular to supply community kitchens. The "Short-Circuit" weekly market welcomes around 20 local producers and over 1,000 visitors every Thursday, from May to October, in the Place Cathédrale.

The CREaFARM programme, which makes public land available free of charge for local and urban agricultural projects. The agricultural plots are farmed by market gardeners on the principle of Community Supported Agriculture.

The creation of the CPA, Conseil de Politique Alimentaire (Food Policy Council) as a consultation and coordination body is also notable. It is dedicated to the actors of the food system, on the scale of the 24 municipalities of Liège Métropole and is composed of six Working Groups.

And last but not least, a month ago, construction began on a vegetable and canning factory, financed by European funds and planned as part of the national plan for recovery and resilience. This new installation will be active in 2025 and enable the supply of local and fresh vegetables to the ISoSL kitchen and beyond.  

Logistics hub for local producers at the historic Droixhe morning bulk market (photo credit: Ville de Liège).

Good practices: from city to city

To reiterate, the BioCanteens Transfer Network played an important role in catalysing this process in Liège. In fact, Liège was engaged in a process of adapting the city of Mouans-Sartoux‘s Good Practice with its means and context: a daily distribution of 100% organic meals made of local products; a drastic reduction of food waste; the organisation of educational activities dedicated to raising children’s awareness of sustainable food, etc.

“In Mouans-Sartoux, the city started to take action towards more healthy and sustainable food and the citizens and the civil society joined the movement. In Liège it is the other way around, the Liège Food Belt kicked off the food transition process and the city administration built on it to set its healthy and sustainable food governance!” summarises Gilles Pérole, Vice-Mayor of Mouans-Sartoux in charge of Children, Education and Food and Coordinator of the BioCanteens URBACT Transfer Network.  

Does this success mean that Liège is starting its own URBACT Transfer Network at regional level? “In a way yes”, answers Davide Arcadipane. “What we achieved here is possible on every Belgian territory. More initiatives from other cities such as Liège will produce more transition to sustainable practice of food producers, more potential to foster change through strategic public procurement even with the declining purchasing power due to inflation, more involvement and coherence in terms of food-related policies between local, regional, federal and European governance levels”.

New short circuit logistic hub programmed for 2025 (Photo credit is Gaetan Wijnants).

Next steps for Liège

A lot has been achieved in a relatively short time to transform the ISoSL central kitchen. What are the next challenges for the city? The central kitchen started to cook two fresh local vegetables per day. The new  vegetable and canning factory will be able to process 1,400 tonnes of locally produced vegetables per year and cover more than the needs of ISoSL. This vegetable factory will achieve the initial objective of 100% organic, announced in 2021 upon entering the URBACT BioCanteens Transfer Network.

The strategic use of the city purchase power. In 2023, Liège school canteens represented around €1,000,0000 of which €600,000 are already classified as ‘sustainable food’. This shows, if still needed, that strategic public procurement has an important stimulation effect on the emergence of new sustainable food producers and on the transition of the local farming ecosystem.  

The 4,000 meals per day provided to the schools and nurseries should now be extended to 12,000 meals per day, including hospitals and elderly homes of the area. There is a strong political interest, including from other Wallonian cities. Moreover, a study is in progress to assess real costs which is to say, costs of delivering sustainable and local meals, but also taking into account hidden costs for public authorities due to unhealthy diets, diffusion of related diseases such as obesity, etc.  

EU City Labs: what’s next on the menu?

The creation of a rich and articulated ecosystem is key to support changes in practices: it is true to ensure the evolution of citizens towards more healthy and sustainable diet. This was analysed in the recent article ‘Feeding change: Cities empowering healthier and more sustainable food choices’ as well as during EU Food City Lab on Changing Habits for a Healthy and Sustainable Food System (Mouans-Sartoux (FR), 21-22 March 2024). Liège example shows, if still needed, that it is also true for stakeholder practices change (farmers, transformers, cooks, canteens staff, etc.).

From 29-30 May 2024, Liège will host the EU City Lab on Public Procurement for More Local, Seasonal and Sustainable Food. EU City Labs are knowledge-sharing events co-hosted by URBACT and the European Urban Initiative. The Liège edition is the second of three events taking place in different cities, focused on change of eating habits, food procurement and preservation of agricultural land, and other elements for cultivating thriving local food systems in urban areas.

Interested in meeting with other cities, representatives and organisations working on this issue? Registration for the next EU City Lab is still open. Consult the full programme and register here.

Want to read more from URBACT experts on food and related topics? Visit the URBACT Food Knowledge Hub.
 

¹ The ISoSL uses the definition of ‘sustainable food’ found in the Wallonia Region Food Strategy Manger Demain (Eating Tomorrow) and that of the FAO.

Food systems are a primary cause of environmental degradation and contribute to climate change, health inequalities and waste. With half the global population living in urban areas, cities are tuning in to the role they play in building more sustainable food systems and helping their residents eat a healthier diet. 

On 21 and 22 March 2024, around 50 city practitioners from 9 European countries gathered in Mouans-Sartoux (France) for the EU City Lab on Changing Food Habits for a Healthy and Sustainable Food System.  

This article condenses the rich exchanges that took place there into 5 ways cities can get onto – or further explore – the food transformation path.  

If you like what you read here, have a look at the EU City Lab #2 programme on using public procurement for more local, seasonal and sustainable food on 29-30 May in Liège (BE).  

1. Take a Food Systems Approach 

Roxana Maria Triboi, lead author of the ex-ante assessment of the “Food” thematic area under the Urban Agenda of the EU (UAEU), emphasised citizens’ “disassociation with food production”, i.e. a general lack of awareness of  food production processes and their social, economic and environmental impacts. For instance, many ignore that food production is responsible for around 26% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By taking a more proactive approach to food consumption, citizens can work towards reintegrating food as a focus of political engagement and help build more sustainable local food systems.  

On their end, policymakers need to stop looking at food policies in a silo, and instead start associating them with broader economic and social goals, such as re-dynamising the local territory or building food security through shorter and fairer supply chains. Thanks to their flexibility, smaller cities are especially relevant to develop synergies and integrated approaches. 

The ex-ante assessment of the Urban Agenda’s “Food” thematic area conducted in 2023 embraced this holistic perspective, building on a conceptual framework developed by IPES-Food. The same conceptual framework also inspires the approach of the three EU City Labs on Local Food Systems. 

2. Navigate the EU landscape on food 

In recent years, EU food policies also witnessed a progressive shift towards a more systemic and sustainability-oriented approach. The 2020 Farm to Fork Strategy, for instance, attempted to introduce an holistic perspective to the food production chain, from the producers to the consumers (and beyond, in the context of a circular economy) and to put sustainability at the core of food systems transformation.  

Yet, there is still a long way to go to transform these ambitious goals into reality, as many critical voices are being raised. “Europe is witnessing a growing push to shift the perspective “from fork to farm”: that is, emphasizing the political legitimacy of the citizens-consumers to decide what they wish to eat” recalled Gilles Perole, Deputy-Mayor of Mouans-Sartoux. As EU legislators work to fill the gap, cities keep playing a key role as drivers of change.  

Initiatives such as the UAEU Partnership on Food, launched in January 2024, put cities at the heart of local food policy transformation. As explained by Elisa Porreca, Food Policy Officer of the City of Milan and coordinator of the partnership, it gathers 21 stakeholders from all sectors of the urban food chain, to build both a shared vision and the necessary tools for its sustainable implementation. For the coming years, the goal is to improve the funding, regulation and knowledge in relation to local food systems.   

3. Get inspired by cities across Europe… 

Organic food in school canteens in Mouans-Sartoux 

Over the years, the city of Mouans-Sartoux has turned into a key source of inspiration for urban food policy practitioners across Europe. Why?  

Because of its three primary school canteens serving 100% organic food since 2012 – all cooked on-site by the canteens’ chefs, with 85% of self-produced vegetables all-year round and diversification of proteins through 50% of vegetarian meals for all. 1,100 meals are served every day by the school canteens to 97% of the total number of pupils in Mouans-Sartoux. The local supply of vegetables is ensured by the municipal farm – a 6-hectare plot pre-empted by the municipality in 2010, with a yield of 25 tons per year. Three full-time farmers work there as civil servants – a first in France.  

Mouans-Sartoux’s practice and know-how has been customised and transferred to 9 European cities through two URBACT Transfer Networks called Biocanteens and Biocanteens#2 from 2018 to 2022. Many other French cities have followed Mouans-Sartoux’s example. 

A key strength of the city’s practice is the progressive buildup on projects, leading to a systemic approach. EU City Lab’s participants got to discover the different building blocks of this approach through city visits and dedicated discussion sessions.   

“The Municipality played a key role in initiating this policy, yet it has focused since the beginning on fostering citizens’ implication,” recalled Gilles Perole, Deputy-Mayor of Mouans-Sartoux. Since 2016, the MEAD (Centre for Sustainable Food Alimentation) supports this ambition through training and education initiatives. Most recently, the city’s participatory efforts led to ‘The Citizen Feeds the City’ initiative, which saw the creation of seven community gardens – initiated by citizens and managed in autonomy by a group of them. 

To tackle the inclusiveness challenge, since 2011 low-income or unemployed citizens may benefit for a few months access to a social grocery store, where they can get healthy and sustainable food at a very low cost. A step further? Scaling up to more categories of citizens who don’t have the chance to properly consider the food they consume. As explained by Caroline Monjardet, Project Manager at MEAD, the city currently works with local companies and restaurants to propose healthier and locally-sourced meals to their employees or customers. 

Group visit to one of the 100% organic school canteens in Mouans-Sartoux (FR) -- with Gilles Perole, Deputy-Mayor of the city. 

Food Study with Irish Traveller women in Cork, Ireland 

Around 2015, a network of traveller women approached Denise Cahill, Healthy Cities Co-ordinator in Cork, concerned about the rate of obesity in their community. Rather than spreading once more food recommendations, as they had multiple times without success, they built together the framework for a food study exploring the social determinants of traveller’s women health. Driven by their experiences, especially facing structural racism and hostility, this research was built with and owned by those traveller women. “Nothing about us without us” is the new motto in Cork.. 

“Cork is now trying to become a trauma-informed city.” As Denise explained, this study did not have such an impact on the obesity rate, but that was never the main goal. Going beyond the scope of food, the study became an advocacy tool for social services to understand the struggles and trauma that vulnerable communities battle with, and ultimately build more positive exchanges with them.  

 “The thinkers and the doers must find a common space.” Denise explained how creating this dialogue is a motor for the city’s action, to give room for everyone’s voices, from the farmers to the elected representatives, including the planners, and the grassroot movements. 

UIA TAST’in FIVES in Lille, France 

Perrine Dubois, project manager at the City of Lille, shared a story of transformation. A former industrial city throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Lille witnessed in 2001 the closure of one of its last industrial factories, “Five Cail” (straddling the neighbouring commune of Hellemmes). What to do with this 15hectare brownfield site located in the heart of the Lille metropolis? In the context of a broader project to turn this zone into an eco-district, the city applied in 2016 to an Urban Innovative Action (UIA) call for the financing of Tast'in Fives, a space dedicated to sustainable food. 

At the heart of the brownfield, a central food hall of over 2,000m2 was therefore renovated to host an innovative combination of activities: a “community kitchen”, a professional kitchen hosting an incubator, an urban farm, and a food court. The first three structures opened in 2021, while the food court, delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, opened in March 2024.   

The project – today called “Chaud Bouillon!” – involved many actors, including residents, neighbourhood associations, universities and private companies. Although its main focus is on strengthening social linkages, attention is also paid to food sustainability aspects – i.e. encouraging shifts towards more sustainable food habits. For example, the incubator’s projects must adhere to sustainability criteria, like the recovery of unsold goods from supermarkets.  

School canteens solutions in Milan 

In Milan, the municipal food provider Milano Ristorazione supplies about 80 000 meals per day, mainly served at schools. Milano Ristorazione is one of the main public stakeholders in the implementation of the Milan’s Food Policy and is a place to experiment with good practices, including menu changes and other enabling measures. 

“The city started monitoring the impact of school catering services more closely in 2015 and has since then managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 42%, mainly by cutting down on red meat and serving more fruits and vegetables” explained Chiara Mandelli, from the Food Policy Area of the Municipality of Milan. The city also achieved significant waste reduction through several measures, from shifting the times when fruits are served at schools, to offering “doggy bags” for children’s leftovers. To challenge the taste of children – often used to processed food and lower vegetable consumption – an educational campaign was launched, featuring booklets and games.  

As Chiara also explained, Milan recently participated in the European Food Trails project to renovate school canteens; and in the EU project “School Food for Change” to create educational programmes for children on local food heritage. Finally, a recent partnership with the University of Pavia seeks to bridge the scientific assessment gap and learn how to best use existing data to inform future policy choices.  

The Circular Food Hub in Roeselare 

The Circular Food Hub in Roeselare (Belgium) extends beyond just providing affordable food. It includes a social grocery store; an eco-café serving low-price meals made with local products; a shared kitchen for workshops on cooking cheap, healthy and sustainable meals; and other amenities.  

Designed as a space for inclusion and for strengthening social linkages among different groups, the place opened in 2020. It quickly succeeded in attracting a variety of users – from the beneficiaries of the social grocery store to participants in food workshops and other training initiatives.  

The Circular Hub is in a former post office owned by the city. “The building features large meeting spaces available to residents and the city administration for future projects, including around food” explained Bo Vanbesien, expert in subsidies and external relations from the City of Roeselare. 

Sharing cities' experiences in Mouans-Sartoux (FR). 

4. Show the impact of your actions 

For Thibaud Lalanne, MEAD Coordinator, impact assessment forms the foundation of the practice of sharing that Mouans-Sartoux has championed. Evaluation is important in two regards: first for internal legitimacy, as public spending is involved; then to advocate and spread good practices to other cities. 

In 2022-23, Mouans-Sartoux’s good practice underwent three assessment exercises: first, the 2022 survey conducted by the Municipal Observatory of School Canteens, focusing on changes in families’ food habits; second, a comprehensive study (in French) based on the a specially-developed evaluation framework for sustainable food projects (Syalinnov method), touching upon a variety of dimensions; and third, a study on environmental impacts conducted by PhD researchers from Nice University. Thanks to these efforts, Mouans-Sartoux is able to quantify the impact of its food policies: a 92% reduction of its carbon footprint according to the Nice study. 

What is main challenge when it comes to evaluation? “The lack of resources” says Thibaud. “There is a contradiction between the necessity of evaluating the policies and the reality of carrying out the surveys.” Evaluation exercises take time, involve many people, and cities can lack the technical competences. To cope with these challenges, “get support to conduct assessments, narrow down the scope of research, and allow yourselves some flexibility, as there is no ‘one size fits all’”. 

5. Check out the next URBACT / EUI networking & funding opportunities 

As Gilles Perole recalled: “the transformation that took place in Mouans-Sartoux can happen in other European cities, whatever their size.” The experience of the URBACT network Biocanteens #2 clearly demonstrated this, by enabling the transfer of Mouans-Sartoux’s good practice to cities like Liège, Wroclaw and more. Cities that vary in size and features of course, but with some key characteristics in common that made the transformation possible: awareness about the stakes related to local food systems; political ambition to change things; and willingness to promote healthier food to the citizens. 

- Download the presentation made at EU City Lab on Local Food Systems #1

- Interested in learning more on the sustainability transition of local food systems? Join us in Liège on 29-30 May 2024 for the next EU City Lab on Public Procurement for More Local, Seasonal and Sustainable food. Register now! 

- Does your city administration have a good practice on this or other topics? Then tell us about it from 15 April to 30 June 2024, during the URBACT Call for Good Practices which seeks good practices that bring positive local impact, that are participatory, integrated and transferable to other cities. More information about this Call will be available on urbact.eu/get-involved 

Additional resources:

- Portico knowledge resources

- Lab speakers/cities or any other urban pratictioner with an interest on food in cities can be contacted via the Portico community 

This article was authored by:

Chiara Petroli, Events Officer at URBACT.

Eva Timsit, Ben Eibl and Nicola Candoni, Students at Science Po Paris.

Over the last five years, the French town of Mouans-Sartoux has reduced the carbon impact of its inhabitants by more than 20%! How? Simply by changing the way they eat! On 21-22 March, Mouans-Sartoux will welcome hungry participants to the URBACT and European Urban Initiative EU City Lab on Changing Habits for a Healthy and Sustainable Food System. 

This article will review the main points of the local food ecosystem and their role in the transformation of eating behaviours. It will draw on the case of several cities to illustrate the multiple entry points into this ecosystem.

The jewel of the cote d'azur

Mouans-Sartoux has considerably reduced the consumption of processed industrial foods, meat and doubled the consumption of organic and local products compared to the French average!

During an interview conducted as part of the Transfer Study of the URBACT BioCanteens in 2018: “In Mouans-Sartoux, we don’t ask ourselves if there is something happening today regarding food, but what is happening? …because the city organises something every day!”. The enthusiasm of Delphine Boissin, from the Parents' Committee of one of the city's three primary schools, is indicative of what we could call a “local ecosystem of healthy and sustainable food”. Mouans-Sartoux, leader of the URBACT BioCanteens Transfer Network (BioCanteens #1 and #2) is best known for these three canteens which serve 1,000 self-produced local and organic meals every day, thanks mainly to its municipal farm. But these jewels make the international reputation of this small town of around 10,000 inhabitants, located on the French Côte d’Azur between Cannes, Grasse and Antibes. What Delphine emphasises is that her little boy lives in an environment where quality food is a permanent and widespread concern, and this is what will lead him to adopt healthier and sustainable eating habits throughout his life!

Local and organic canteen is the school of healthy and sustainable food in Mouans-Sartoux (photo credit Mouans-Sartoux)

A local healthy and sustainable food ecosystem

Changing our eating habits is a profound questioning of who we are. Tackling it represents a major challenge for the sustainable transition that European cities face today. Whether because of daily routines, persistence of habits, addiction to comfort, etc., the transition of consumption practices faces significant resistance from citizens. As sociologist Claude Fischler points out in his  book, L'Homnivore, this resistance is particularly strong for our diet. This is the phenomenon of “incorporation”: beyond marking a lifestyle, conferring a cultural and religious identity, food constitutes the body of the eater. 

Behavioural scientists, who study the factors of resistance to change, emphasise that to transform consumption practices, a systemic approach is needed. Different models resulting from this research can be used by public authorities to define a range of balanced actions. We can use the following simple framework: to adopt a healthier and more sustainable diet, citizens must be aware of its importance both for their health and for reducing the impact on the environment (the motivational dimension). They must be able to access a healthy and balanced diet nearby (the capacity dimension) and finally they must encounter occasions in their life, their neighbourhood to change their practices (the opportunity dimension).

(Re)engage the population with food

Daily meal preparation time for a family of four was, in the 1960s, averaging at 4 hours. Today it has fallen to just over 15 minutes. This apparent gain in efficiency and practicality actually masks a progressive loss of domestic culinary capabilities: frozen foods, ready meals, take-away, etc., as already highlighted within the URBACT network Sustainable Food in Urban Communities in 2012-2014 by cities like Bristol, Brussels and Lyon, a growing part of the population is profoundly disengaged with food.

Common solidarity kitchen shared within the “Gourmet Hall”, UIA project Tast'in Fives Cail (photo credit UIA project Tast'in Fives) 

Faced with this disengagement, cities are seeking to set up educational programmes in schools, social centres and public places to educate residents about the benefits of a healthy and sustainable diet.

In Lille, the Urban Innovative Action project Tast'in Fives Cail included the establishment of an ecosystem of food activities organised around a “Gourmet Hall”, a shared common “solidarity kitchen”, an incubator around cooking professions, among other things.

Simple education and awareness-raising actions on nutrition, prevention of junk food or the impact of conventional agricultural sectors on health or the environment are necessary to motivate but not sufficient to sustainably transform eating habits. The challenge for cities is to build citizens' capacities by organising cooking workshops, visits to urban farms and culinary events highlighting local products, etc. 

Each city is looking for local assets to promote to better engage its population with food. Lyon (FR) for example leveraged in its Territorial food plan its rich gastronomic heritage, involving its renowned chefs and culinary institutions to educate children from a young age about quality food, organising cooking events at street food markets with chefs demonstrating what can be done with ingredients from the surrounding stalls, revisiting traditional recipes to reinvent a more plant-based, light and sustainable gastronomy.

Conversely, in a context less centred on a strong food culture in Helsinki (FI), the Ministry of the Environment carries out actions on the revitalisation of traditional food culture and the promotion of local products “because people must first be interested in food before they can change their consumption habits for a healthier and more sustainable diet.”   

Facilitating access to healthy and sustainable food

“Here most of the families who come to see us have never bought a fresh vegetable in their life. They don’t know how to cook it and in any case if they do not have means of transport, they will not find fresh vegetables in the neighbourhood…” for the Hartcliffe Health & Environment Action Group (Hheag) which runs cooking classes in the social centre in the Hartcliffe district of Bristol, changing eating habits also involves ensuring access to quality food in all neighbourhoods of a city. To do this, cities can encourage the establishment of local farmers' markets, organic food stores and food cooperatives in different neighbourhoods. These initiatives provide residents with easier access to fresh, seasonal and locally produced foods, thereby promoting healthier diets and reducing dependence on processed and imported foods. Support for social and solidarity grocery stores, direct sales networks, participatory stores or more ambitious projects, such as experimenting with local social food security systems, make beneficial changes to diet more accessible, regardless of socioeconomic status.

In line with Carolyn Steel's theses in her work Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Live cities like Montpellier, Lyon or Lille are integrating the food dimension into their urban planning by promoting accessibility to food markets, the installation of local food shops, the creation of restaurants offering local and sustainable cuisine, the development of green spaces conducive to food production and the preservation of agricultural land on the outskirts of the city. Milan (IT) has implemented "Food Districts" in different neighbourhoods of the city, areas dedicated to the promotion of local gastronomy, urban agriculture and quality food products. All of these approaches aim to make food more accessible and more visible in urban spaces.

Changing eating habits also requires cities to take into account the diversity of urban populations. For each cultural community, the preservation of culinary traditions, respect for food prohibitions, the organisation of supply chains for traditional products and specific distribution stores, etc. are strong identity vectors to take into account and activate so that the evolution towards a healthier and more sustainable diet is a reality for everyone. Within its Good Food food strategy, the Brussels-Capital Region places emphasis on promoting culinary diversity by supporting a multitude of initiatives such as the Green Canteen project of “social catering” associated with “cooking workshops” and “solidarity meals” or training for professionals in the health and social sector by focusing on food adapted to the social and cultural diversity of their audiences. 

Green Canteen Project provides a catering service at free prices, for citizens and institutions working for social projects, “workshops” places to meet, share and learn healthy, environmentally-friendly cuisine and enriched with various cultural references and “solidarity meals” table d’hôtes organised in support of projects and events for a fairer society (Photo credit Green Cantine van Brussels)

Participative food governance

Cities are involving their citizens in the elaboration of their local food governance in order to motivate their involvement and concerns on key challenges such as food precariousness, impacts of junk food on health conditions or maintenance of the city food sovereignty. These participative food governance result in adopting policies and regulations that promote the production, distribution and consumption of healthy and sustainable foods. Such policy measures can involve, among others, strict standards for public canteens and mass catering, restrictions on advertising of unhealthy foods and tax incentives for businesses engaged in delivering sustainable food products. 

In Liège (BE), more than 400 stakeholders in healthy and sustainable food such as urban farms, community gardens, peri-urban farms, food cooperatives, etc. created the Liège Food-Land Belt. The city draws on the strength of civil society to promote small-scale food production in urban and peri-urban areas, thereby reducing dependence on food imports and supporting local producers. In 2022, Liège founded the Conseil Politique de l’Alimentation (Food Policy Council) . The initial impetus was to build their food governance, cities equip themselves with participatory bodies made up of experts, civil society actors and citizen representatives, which have the effect of strengthening the involvement of populations in the management of their food.

Launch of the Food Policy Council on 8 December, 2022. Initiated by the Liège Food-Terre Belt, the 24 municipalities of the district brought together within Liège-Métropole, and the University of Liège, the CPA aims to coordinate various initiatives which aim at the development of the sustainable food sector in the territory. (Photo credit Liège-Métropole Food Policy Council)

School canteens and municipal administration restaurants have a very important role to play in activating good eating practices. Jumping from Liège back to Mouans-Sartoux, the canteens of the three primary schools are for pupils a real school of healthy and sustainable food: involvement of children with cooks to achieve “0-waste”, demonstration that the savings made in reducing food waste makes it possible to finance quality organic food, tangible experience for the children of the city's food sovereignty project when they pick the fruits and vegetables at the municipal farm that they will eat in the canteen, etc. The children's experience extends to all families who, for example, go so far as to reproduce good recipes from the canteen to cook dishes at home that are healthy, sustainable and appreciated by children.

Systemic approach: To what effect?

But does all this work and what are the effects produced in terms of transforming eating habits? Cities are starting to share the results of evaluating their food transition strategies. For example, the Brussels Capital Region carries out surveys on the evolution of the behaviour of Brussels residents in terms of sustainable food. At the start, mid-term and at the time of renewal of its Good Food #1 strategy reporting progress on multiple dimensions of the local food ecosystem affecting the change in eating habits such as the success of citizen self-production, the labeling of canteens and restaurants, the promotion of short circuits and the dissemination of a quality offer in food businesses. One-third of the 1,000 Brussels residents surveyed in 2016, 2018 and 2020 say they have changed their eating habits over this period of time to consume a lot of sustainable food, but this development is struggling to reach more vulnerable groups, the price of healthy and sustainable food remains the major obstacle for nearly three-quarters of the population.

In Mouans-Sartoux, the study cited at the beginning of the article which covers the period 2017-2022 shows the systemic advantages linked to the development of more sustainable practices within territorialised systems: food represents on average 2t of carbon per person per year in France, it is only around 1.17t in Mouans-Sartoux. The average diet of residents has an impact of 43% compared to the national average and the number of residents eating less meat has increased by 85%.

Children from Mouans-Sartoux primary schools who participate in the town's municipal farm in harvesting vegetables that they will soon eat in the school canteen (photo credit town of Mouans-Sartoux)

Cities are leveraging their food assets and capital to activate all these dimensions of their food ecosystem at once. This article shows the variety of possible entry points: organic and local canteens like in Mouans-Sartoux, the gastronomic tradition as in Lyon, the revitalisation of neighborhood food culture as in Lille, citizen participation and awareness of food issues as in Liège, the promotion of culinary diversity as in Brussels, a coordinated commitment of stakeholders and civil society as in Bristol. Other systemic entry points are also possible: food markets as a hub for quality food in neighborhoods like in Lisbon and in Cagliari, the development of urban and peri-urban agriculture as in Montpellier, differentiating approaches for sustainable and inclusive food as in Milan, the promotion of urban beekeeping as inLjubljana, the development of community vegetable gardens such as in Rome, and so on. 

EU City Labs: What’s next on the menu?

The examples covered in this article represent entry points that are important to trigger the transition of populations' dietary practices and are intended to remain dominant provided that all these dimensions emerge at once, i.e., a complete ecosystem balancing motivations, capacities and opportunities to change one's food habits.

Later this month, from 21-22 March, Mouans-Sartoux will host the EU City Lab on Changing Habits for a Healthy and Sustainable Food System. The EU City Labs are knowledge-sharing events co-hosted by URBACT and the European Urban Initiative. The Mouans-Sartoux edition is the first of three events taking place in different cities, focused on procurement, agri-food and land use, and other elements for cultivating thriving local food systems in urban areas.

Interested in meeting with other cities, representatives and organisations working on this issue? Consult the full programme and register here. 

Want to read more from URBACT experts on food and related topics? Visit the URBACT Knowledge Hub.
 

Ve čtvrtek 21. a v pátek 22. března 2024 se ve francouzském Mouans-Sartoux uskuteční EU City Lab on Local Food Systems #1. Jedná se o akci zaměřenou na sdílení znalostí, kterou společně pořádají URBACT a Evropská městská iniciativa (EUI) za podpory města Mouans-Sartoux.

Tato laboratoř EU City Lab se zaměří na téma změny návyků pro zdravý a udržitelný potravinový systém. Cílem akce je prostřednictvím diskusí a sdílením znalostí, tematických zasedání, "walkshopů" a skupinových aktivit prozkoumat, jak může změna stravovacích návyků podpořit systémovou změnu udržitelnosti v evropských městech.

EU City Lab je jedinečnou příležitostí:

- dozvědět se více o dobré praxi města Mouans-Sartoux v oblasti společného školního stravování,

- prozkoumat, jak se další evropská města inspirovala od Mouans-Sartoux v sítích měst URBACT Transfer Networks BioCanteens a BioCanteens#2.

- objevit další dobrou praxi vyzkoušenou v jiných evropských městech na podporu udržitelnosti místních potravinových systémů,

- navštívit místa v Mouans-Sartoux a vyměnit si s místními obyvateli informace o celoměstské udržitelnosti potravin, akcích zapojujících občany a vzdělávacích komunitách,

- diskutovat o tom, jak lze v různých národních kontextech zavést místní projekty směřující ke zdravějším a udržitelnějším potravinovým návykům, a

- lépe porozumět evropskému prostředí v oblasti potravinových systémů.

Událost v Mouans-Sartoux bude první ze série tří EU City Labs, které se budou zabývat potravinovými systémy v evropských městech z různých tematických hledisek.

Další laboratoře budou uspořádány v průběhu roku 2024:

- Veřejné zakázky pro více místních, sezónních a udržitelných potravin - Liège, Belgie, 29. a 30. května 2024.

- Udržitelné využívání půdy pro zemědělsko-potravinářské účely (místo a datum budou brzy zveřejněny).
 

Více informací o sérii EU City Lab naleznete zde. 

Podívejte se na předběžný program a přečtěte si praktické informace k organizaci Vaší cesty do Mouans-Sartoux.

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COPYING NEIGHBOURS…
How to facilitate the collaboration between territories, the exchange of inspiring cases, the translation between governance cultures, the emulation and transfer between cities and resilience through cooperation in the face of such as the pandemic, the Ukraine crisis, or other unprecedented future problems?
BioCanteens is one of the 23 URBACT Transfer Networks engaged in a form of “action-research” to transfer "Good Practice" from one city to a set of partner cities across Europe. In this augmented edition completing the first publication based on the experience of BioCanteens1 with the experience of BioCanteens2 “second wave”, you will find out...

...LESSONS OF BIOCANTEENS TRANSFER NETWORKS
BioCanteens Transfer Network is about ensuring the distribution of sustainable school meals in participating cities as a key lever towards the development of an integrated local agri-food approach, protecting both citizens’ health and the environment. The project aims to transfer Mouans-Sartoux’s Good Practice based on the daily distribution of meals that are 100% organic and mostly composed of local products, the drastic reduction of food waste thereby fully compensating the higher cost of switching to organic products, and the organisation of dedicated educational activities to raise children’s awareness about sustainable food. It tells the various “Transfer stories” of the 9 BioCanteens city partners: Gavà in Spain, Liège and Pays des Condruses in Belgium, Rosignano-Marittimo in Italy, Torres Vedras in Portugal, Trikala in Greece, Troyan in Bulgaria, Vaslui in Romania and Wroclaw in Poland. You may also learn about “Transfer outcomes” after BioCanteens 1 & 2 and in particular the European online event organized in March 2021 in partnership with URBACT and the Glasgow Declaration and the Mouans-Sartoux Food Festival « À TABLE ! » organized in September 2022 to share the networks experiences, to raise European cities’ awareness on food sovereignty and to call on Europe to consider the need for a food exception in public procurement.

Read the full document HERE and start your revolution!

In one year and a half, the cities of BioCanteens#2 network have worked hard to transform the functioning of their school canteens. They have put into question their local agriculture and economy, drafting strategies on how to stimulate organic offer and demand. They have made a consistent job of sensibilization to food-related issues targeting not only kids but politicians, civil society and neighboring cities. All these actions have limited meaning and impact if taken singularly, but gain powerful sense if analysed altogether in a vision of food sovereignty. But what is the real meaning of this concept? 

Food Sovereignty is not to be confused with sovereinism, as it often occurs. In the mouth of many politicians, food sovereinism cares for the growth of the country’s GDP through the structuration of national agri-food industries and value chains. Closing agricultural economy to export and trade becomes the solution to protect national excelleces and economies.

This capitalistic vision of food and agriculture is often miscalled food sovereignty and disguised with messages of environmental and biodiversity preservation, creating confusion.

Food sovereignty deeply cares for the territory at a smaller scale and aspires at decoupling food – essencial need for human beings – from market dynamics. Food sovereignty is about human beings having direct, democratic control over the most important elements of their society – how we feed and nourish ourselves, how we use and maintain the land, water and other resources around us for the benefit of current and future generations, and how we interact with other groups, peoples and cultures. (La via Campesina, 2018). The organisation La Via Campesina introduced this concept in 1996, based on 6 pillars: 

1. A food system that focuses on food for people : rejects the proposition that food is just another commodity or component for international agri-business.

2. A food system values food providers and aims at creating fair market conditions

3. Localises food systems: brings food providers and consumers closer together. Importance of the territories. 

4. Decisionmaking and control at the local level: recognizes that local territories often cross geopolitical borders and ensures the right of local communities to inhabit and use their territories; it promotes positive interaction between food providers in different regions and territories and from different sectors. No national protectionism

5. A food system that builds knowledge and skills that are respectful for the future generations' needs

6. A food system that works with nature, values agroecological practices and takes into account the perspective of Climate Change

Inspired by the theories of François Collart Dutilleul (Nourrir, 2021), we like to add another pillar : Democracy –promoting equal rights for the individuals, for future generations and people, as well as transparency of information

We put all these information on the table during the Biocanteens#2 project because only a strong Food Sovereignty vision will be the engine for future actions.

European local authorities are today the drivers of the transition towards sustainable local food systems. In a context of strong concerns about Europe's food security, the key role of cities in the food transition deserves to be further supported by the EU, notably in the next framework law for a sustainable food system to be proposed by the European Commission in 2023. 

Mouans-Sartoux and the BioCanteens#2 partner cities are just some of many local authorities in Europe committed to food sovereignty and democracy. Ensuring fairer access to quality food for all, building resilient agroecological food systems, recreating urban food belts and developing more participatory food governance are not mere objectives but realities that are taking shape on the ground. 

On September 26, 2022, the city of Mouans-Sartoux invited British activist Rob Hopkins to open the Mouans-Sartoux Food Festival, A Table! With his conference entitled "The urgency of transition" he was able to launch the debate of the next two days on the construction of a European food democracy and sovereignty.

Building on the work that Mouans-Sartoux has been carrying out on multiple axes since 2015, A Table! brought together more than 150 actors from 10 countries, including 50 local authorities, and more than 20 NGOs and official structures involved in the food transition, for the closing of the URBACT BioCanteens Network #2. The participation of a Member of the European Parliament and the European Commission allowed for a multi-level dialogue aimed at bridging the needs of local communities with the food policy strategies defined by Europe in order to co-create food sovereignty.

Because cities are living labs of virtuous experiences to share and must make their needs known at the European level, the city of Mouans-Sartoux wanted to organise this event, where, in addition to the presentation of the Biocanteen#2 project and the visits to present the Mouans food project, numerous debates, exchanges and workshops were organised around the following three key themes 

• How to build a European food sovereignty that protects people's health and the planet?

• 100% organic school canteens throughout the EU: it is possible!

• For a food exception in the European public procurement code

Finally, the enthusiastic return after the 100% organic lunch at L'Orée du Bois school and the visit to the Municipal Farm, demonstrated once again the innovation of the Mouans-Sartoux project. The actions carried out by the town for more than 20 years are perfectly in line with the political priorities that are now emerging on the European agenda, and demonstrate that it can be a model not only for other towns of all sizes and countries but also for political organisations. 

Check out the tribune of Gilles Perole published on the Parliament Magazine on this matter here!