Social innovation in food sharing to strengthen urban communities’ food resilience

With the recent Covid-19 pandemic, it is now evident that the risk of disruptions of food systems needs to be given greater attention. Strengthening the resilience of communities (in particular the most vulnerable and isolated, and those at risk of food poverty) to potential food system disruptions is at the heart of this topic.

The Pandemic has contributed to the emergence of territorialised and community-based food economies spontaneously created by citizens. These new sharing and circular economies are based on the redistribution of value, knowledge-sharing and reciprocal support, and are often supported by local governments.

Urban food sharing initiatives have been multiplying across a wide range of diversified cities, far beyond the wealthiest ones, and are often facilitated by new technologies such as apps, websites and social media. Such initiatives develop strategies that support an increase in resilience, social justice and empowerment of vulnerable and marginalised populations.

However, urban food sharing is still an unexplored – and debated – field; there is currently no agreed definition and many activities can be considered as part of it (e.g. kitchen spaces, meal sharing, food business incubators, collaborative delivery services, food donation). The lack of political interest, financing and sufficient data, as well as the existence of regulatory barriers and risks (both real and perceived), are holding back the rise of new food systems economies that work for all people and the planet.

The proposals should foster social innovation, with a special focus on building a more widespread and resilient food sharing economy, where different practices can be considered, while working on 5 distinct areas:

• Mapping, tracking and monitoring: building on the work of the EU-funded project ‘Sharecity’[[https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/646883/]], proposals should investigate the food sharing landscapes of at least 100 EU/Associated Countries cities to understand how food sharing landscapes differ within and across countries; moreover, proposals should develop automated systems to search, collect and – especially – update existing urban and peri-urban initiatives;
• Cost-benefit analysis: proposals should define appropriate measures and indicators to assess the social, economic and environmental benefits of urban and peri-urban food sharing, including developing new indices to describe the specificity of food sharing economy. This should include the production of new knowledge on the challenges, implementation gaps and innovative mechanisms to foster for sustainable food sharing in cities, towns and neighbourhoods;
• Comparative governance analysis: proposals should investigate how different food sharing landscapes evolve and, also through a scenario analysis, how to transform the existing regulatory regimes, governance structures and habits, to promote sustainable food sharing;
• Strategic planning: proposals should exploit the potential for replicability/scale up of existing food sharing initiatives across the EU and associated countries and bring innovation into urban food systems design to integrate sustainable food sharing and build the urban food systems of the future;
• Challenging the existing theories: proposals should study the relationship between the evolution of social norms, culture and local conditions, including their change due to the global pandemics, and the rise of food sharing initiatives.

Furthermore, proposals should support the definition of innovative local strategies to overcome the barriers to food and nutrition security in urban areas and boost community resilience. This can include the creation and evaluation of distributive food systems (e.g. mutual aid programmes, local food systems networks) based on local needs and capacities, where value, knowledge and power would be redistributed fairly across actors and territories; tailored solutions - including social innovations, frugal innovation, technologies, new/adapted business models -, as well as new market places.

Proposals should address inequalities in urban food systems, whether they be due to gender, race and other social categories.

Proposals should implement the multi-actor approach by conducting inter and trans-disciplinary research and involving a wide diversity of food system actors, with a special attention to consumers and civil society organisations. They should ensure a strong involvement of citizens and civil society, as well as of academia, industry and public authorities in the development of the methods and approaches to innovation.

Proposals should explain and map how the co-benefits relevant to the four Food 2030 priorities will be achieved: Nutrition for sustainable healthy diets, Climate and environment, Circularity and resource efficiency, Innovation and empowerment of communities.

Proposals should set out a clear plan on how they will collaborate with other proposals selected under this and any other relevant topic/call, e. g. by participating in joint activities, workshops, as well as common communication and dissemination activities.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines.