Project title: Food Wave – EmpoweringUrban Youth for Climate Change (Grant Contract CSO-LA/2019/411-515)
Project coordinator: Comune di Milano
Funding: Europe Aid – Raising public awareness of develop
ment issues and promoting development education among European Citizens
Duration of the contract: December 2019 – November 2023
Contracting Authority: European Comission
The FoodWave project aims to increase awareness, involvement and responsibility in young generations (15-35 years) towards the adoption of sustainable behaviors in terms of food consumption. The project is coordinated by the Municipality of Milan, takes place across 16 EU Member States and is built around three key pillars: Awareness, Involvement and Mass Communication / Outreach. The project aims at reaching 15 million European youth across the 16 Countries of implementation.
The sustainable transition, tackling the climate change, cannot be procrastinated any more. While the worldwide food production is responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas (GHC) emissions, it is at the same time affected by climate change. In addition, more than a third of the global food production per year (40% at European level) goes wasted, producing significant impact on climate, as well as on the environment. Therefore, changing food system (production and consumption patterns) is a key aspect to face the climate change issues because of its cross-cutting and capillary nature, both in the economic system and in daily life.
On one hand, the sustainable food system requires better regulation and governance at all levels: in this framework, Local Authorities (LAs)/Municipalities have already shown the effectiveness of adopting Food Policies. On the other hand, increased awareness among all the actors of the value chain (from producers to -consumers”) of sustainable food system, enables them to build fertile ground and allows the full implementation of innovative policies. In this framework, youth are a crucial target not only for the role they will assume in future governance, but also because they are the most resourceful agents of change.
The project’s Overall Objective is that EU Citizens’ increase knowledge, awareness, and engagement on sustainable patterns of food consumption and production for climate change mitigation and adaptation. In order to contribute to this wider goal, the project will achieve the following Outcome: Young people in 16 EU Member States are committed to change their food consumption behaviour and to actively promote the shift towards ecological and inclusive urban food systems, contributing to the EU’s efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
As the Outcome is very comprehensive, the partners will accomplish it by achieving three intermediary Outcomes (i0c), which match the three key pillars of the project’s design: Awareness, Engagement, Communication/Outreach.
The project expected outcomes involve the following:
- Key target youth in 19 EU cities are aware of the importance of climate-friendly food consumption behaviours, policies and food system models impact
- Key target youth increase knowledge and capacities in awareness raising and campaigning and actively engage in the promotion of practices for sustainable food systems
- Target youth in 19 cities engage with a wider EU audience on the importance of sustainable food consumption and urban food policies to tackle climate change.
Project Implementation:
URBAN2020 is not a direct partner, but a linked third party for Brașov Metropolitan Agency. At the consortium level, URBAN2020 will be more involved in activities related to Pillar 1 – Awareness (coordinated by MANITESE, an Italian NGO, experienced in Global Citizenship Education workshops) and Pillar 2 – Involvement / Engagement (coordinated by ACRA, an Italian Foundation, offering market-based solutions with high social and economic impact). Moreover, URBAN2020 will be actively involved in activities conducted by Brașov Metropolitan Agency at local level, supporting the smooth implementation of project actions, as well as the work performed with local target groups.
Project main pillars & activites:
- Pillar 1 (Awareness):
Activity 1.1.2: Involve target youth online and offline – the dissemination of the contents developed under activity 1.1.1. Sub-activities incluse: provide materials for teachers on the project theme, the development of an online platform, a Mobile App and offline/online meetings (involving High-School and University students or the general public). Brașov will organise 4 open workshops, meant as the first step toward a mapping of sustainable food resources withing the territory.
- Pillar 2 (Engagement):
Activity 2.1.1.: Establish Communications & Participation Summer/Winter School for young activists – the engagement of key target youth, selected among the involved groups, guiding them through a capacity development path that will equip them with necessary skills to act as acatalysts and agents of change within their communities. Brașov will host a series of Summer/Winter Schools and will target approximately 30 youth per group. The educational program will provide common training materials, adapted to specific operational contexts and languages.
Activity 2.1.2: Provide underprivileged youth (eg suburb and migrants) with engaging skills, (in Brasov, young people will have access to specialised training sessions in the form of taste ateliers and cooking sessions) – assure engagement of youth living in the underprivileged areas or socio-economic conditions. Under the guidance of the Local Municipality and actors involved, relevand ongoing interventions supporting this theme have been identified. In Brașov, young people will have access to specialised training sessions in the form of taste ateliers and cooking sessions.
Activity 2.1.3: Co-create street actions and campaigning activities with target youth – implies the development of a contest, which will be rolled out locally, through the common guidelines of the project. The contests will be implemented, based on what the actors have done under activities 2.1.1 and 2.1.2. Because Brașov will implement a Summer/Winter School, the contest will include a specific lot for its participants; a separate category involving underpriviliged youth; a wider contest open to all interested youth.
Activity 2.2.1: Establish a sub-granting scheme for youth organisations and Las – the sub-granting scheme will support grass-root initiatives and street actions in the field of climate-friendly food consumption behaviours. A sub-granting process will be set up, followed by the Call for Proposals, and finally the assessment of the proposals. Brașov will also launch a sub-granting scheme. Projects will be assessed based on the capacity to mobilize and engage youth in local communities, the effectiveness and the impact of the action and the capacity to promote sustainable development models and to enlarge the network of actors.
Activity 2.3.1: Establish online and offline youth participation and discussion platforms – this will foster and encourage opportunities of networking and exchange for the youth involved, through a number of channels (for instance, the platform established under Act.1.1.2 will be a meeting point where youth will be able to share their experiences through the dedicated social media section, through blog posts, visual content and discussions forms).
- Pillar 3 (Communication/Outreach):
Activity 3.2.1. Develop and deliver a Pan-European digital campaign (Examples of media use for youth engagement come from Brasov and Manchester, where the project will create online discussion fora on their social media channels, to convey project content and foster debate and networking on key issues) – implies the development of a common platform, that will be the key dissemination tool of the project and will encourage the creation of online and offline networks of young Europeans. The campaign will use specific guidelines, but will also be adapted to the local context. The dissemination will be done through dedicated social-media channels and will be linked to the digital platform. In Brașov the project will create online discussions fora on their social media channels, to convey project content and foster debate and networking on key issues.