The project „Food&More” is a strategic partnership of four partners to design a European education programme for food consumer-citizens and disseminate it on local, national and European levels. The four partners are Tudatos Vásárlók Egyesülete (TVE, coordinator, Hungary), Asociace Mistnich Potravinovych Iniciativ (AMPI, Czech Republic) and Fundacja Ekorozwoju (FER, Poland) and the international network Urgenci (based in France).The implementation of “sustainable consumption and production” (SPC) as an integrated approach helps to achieve overall development plans, reduce future economic, environmental and social costs, strengthen economic competitiveness and reduce poverty. (UNEP EN, ABC for SCP, 2010). Food&More contributes to the achievement of these goals by the development of a non-formal educational programme for consumer-citizens, focusing on one key topic of SPC: food. The food we produce and consume has a significant impact on the environment. (EC’s EIPRO report, 2006). The sources of our needs analysis were the experience from directly working with food communities for more than a decade, annual survey of these active communities, in 2018 all partners actively participated in the European in-depth research of the financial sustainability and management coordination of solidarity based food systems. The European survey covered all partner countries, thus the results are representative to all partners (questionnaires filled in by 503 food citizens and farmers). The conclusion of the European Survey is that there is a strong, explicit need for more consumer participation in the management of food communities. Therefore in a consultative process we developed the Food&More project that is focused on the education of the most active consumer-citizens, so called food citizens. The training will equip them with knowledge from peers and trainers, skills, tools and motivation to enhance democratic participation in their communities. This way the food communities will operate in a more participatory way and become more sustainable, but this will not bring extra burden on the farmer.Our project is a non-formal educational programme which takes advantage of online learning. The project has three main pillars. I) To design a European core training programme for food citizens by 1) elaborating a participatory training programme with supporting tools, 2) to build capacity of staff and trainers in non-formal training methods and by 3) to run, evaluate, verify and improve the core programme (O1). II) To equip food citizens with educational methods and tools which can be applied in their food communities (O2-3) with 2) offering a mentorship system (O4) and also with 3) aiming to educate consumers about food citizenship (O2). III) To assure the dissemination and the accessibility of Food&More by 1) engaging key food citizens in the testing, verification and evaluation , 2) make the training program accessible on European level and with 3) building new alliances on local and international level for the long term sustainability of Food&More.Project partners line up several innovative elements in addition the specific content. The participatory methodology is supported with a specific mentorship system which will help staff and trainers of the project and also food citizens in carrying out community based education in their food communities. Partner organisations prioritize digital tools and OER, educational tools which will be published in most cases with Creative Commons (cc) licence which provides free, easy-to-use copyright license to share and use the chosen resources.During the project period, 1) a community based training programme will be elaborated with supporting tools (trainers guide and booklet), 2) 1 short term joint staff training event and 9 test training events will be organised with the participation of 116 adult learners, 3) a complex educational toolkit and an e-learning platform and a mentorship system will be organised for food citizens 4) 3 national and one Central-Eastern European Multiplier event will be organised. Partners plan to involve at least 25 participants with fewer opportunities into the elaboration and testing of Food&More. Partners will address allies, organise meetings with decision-makers and experts through dissemination activities, as well as disseminate the results to the wider audience reaching 32 European countries and thousands of people. Altogether, 1,7 million people will be addressed with the project. The learner based methodology of Food&More will contribute to the successful operation of food communities, the improvement of key competences and transversal skills of food citizens an on long term to the spread of SCP and locally working democratic communities in Europe.

"<< Background >>Based on experiences from our previous work, internal discussions in the organisations and feedback we collected from our trainers, activists, community leaders and other participants in the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary, we conducted the in-depth analysis of the needs of all of our target groups. Thanks to this analysis, we discovered that across all target groups there is a strong need to acquire better competence in soft skills and related methods and techniques of non-violent communication, participatory decision-making, discussion facilitation and moderation as well and large-scale public events organization, with the specific emphasis on democratic and inclusive methodologies.Project partners staff members expressed the need of participating in an internal training in soft skills for trainers, facilitators and organizers. They want to expand and strengthen their expertise, share experience, knowledge, best practice, create network and build a basis for developing and piloting the training modules.Trainers, facilitators and organizers feel the need of developing their soft skills in the above mentioned areas. They also all agreed that there is a lack of high-quality published materials about organising large-scale SSE events using participatory, bottom-up approaches , materials that they can use - very practical as well as attractive to use and disseminate: small, hands-on how-to-dos. Moreover, , this target group also expressed the need of starting to develop a community of like-minded trainers, facilitators and organizers in their field.Activists and organizers participating in the activist training want to be more empowered with new knowledge and skills in order to support their work and develop it further. Many of them would like to gain expertise in soft skills to build resilience of their movement. They also liked the idea of producing the Handbook for organizers.<< Objectives >>Based on the needs analysis, the main goal of the HATI-SOS project is to support the development of SSE via the development of alternative educational approaches especially in CEE, by widening and promoting the offer of alternative soft skills educational programmes for adults and strengthening the cooperation and networking of trainers and activists. In order to achieve this main goal, together with our partner organisations, we agreed on the following objectives:1) supporting the development of SSE in CEE by equipping trainers, facilitators, organizers and activists in the SSE field in soft skills.2) strengthening the cooperation and knowledge about SSE by supporting the development of an alternative community of trainers, facilitators, organizers and activists in the SSE field.3) enabling the bottom-up participation of trainers, facilitators, organizers and activists in activities supporting sustainable transformation of economy by developing their communication, organizing and campaigning skills.4) developing innovative and specialized educational tools for the trainers, facilitators, organizers and activists to be utilized in education about SSE in CEE.<< Implementation >>Project consortium will produce and organise:- 1 kick off meeting/9 participants- 3 transnational project meetings/9 participants each meeting- 4 project results- 1 learning/teaching/training activity/18 participants- 18 multiplier events/12 participants per 16 testing events (192), 20 on pilot activists training, 20 on regional social solidarity economy forum in Budapest<< Results >>During the project implementation, 4 results will be realised:R1: Soft skills trainingR2: Training for activistsR3: Soft skills cookbook in 5 languages (CZ, PL, SK, HU and EN)R4: Handbook for organizers in 5 languages (CZ, PL, SK, HU and EN)RESULT 1As a result of the internal training programme organized at the beginning of the project (C1: Short-term joint staff training event - Soft skills meet SSE - 4 local participants, 14 international participants = 18 in total), partners’ staff members will increase their knowledge and soft skills competencies acquired through innovative training methods, and will be able to share them in the context of their respective CEE countries. They will also enrich their organizations and networks with new inputs and capacity. This will allow partner organisations to build stronger cooperation and extend their networks at the international level.RESULT 2The primary result of the whole project, but especially of R2, is to create an informal educational programme on soft skills, that will enhance the knowledge and practical skills of trainers. The methodology will be an alternative to the mainstream offer of educational programmes on soft skills in the Visegrad area, with a more participatory, democratic, socially just and post-patriarchal approach. An additional training will focus on very practical skills of organizing large-scale events like Food Sovereignty Forum in a participatory way by involving the participants in co-organizing a Regional SSE Forum in Budapest. By enhancing the capacity of trainers and activists, the further development of SSE - especially at the regional level of the Visegrad countries – will be supported.RESULT 3With the “Soft skills cookbook” published in CZ, PL, SK, HU and EN, the stakeholders will increase their knowledge about soft-skills for successful participation, leadership development and community organising. The publication will serve as a tool for trainers, facilitators and activists from various organisations, informal groups, and movements in their work towards deepening of democratic processes, strengthening community relations, establishing better participation in public decision making and the like. It can be used in various fields of social life – from the workplace to the political sphere and help comprehend the post-patriarchal and social justice approach with respect to marginalised and socially excluded people and inclusion of people usually facing social barriers to participation and active citizenship. It will deepen their know-how in practices such as Non-Violent Communication & Active Listening, Giving and Receiving Feedback, Organizing Successful Meetings, Facilitation & Moderation and Self-care & Sustainable Activism.RESULT 4Thanks to the ""Handbook for organizers” (in 5 languages), the target groups of our project will increase their capability to plan and organize large scale events based on participatory, bottom-up practices. On the basis of the Handbook, organizers of SSE-related events will be able to fully use the potential emerging from a gathering of numerous participants and provide them with the needed space for sharing their experience, empower them, ignite new connections and ideas and strengthen the network of cooperation."

The overall goal of “CSAct!, a Community -Supported Agriculture collaborative training programme”, was to enhance and to extend the offer of CSA training programmes to European CSA members and farmers. This included simplifying the core training curriculum and deploying new materials, with a wide range of training opportunities and activities, in order to facilitate the spread of CSA initiatives by transmitting knowledge, skills and competences from experienced stakeholders and organisations to local communities. This overall goal was declined into 3 different key objectives. The first major objective was to upgrade the core European CSA training program, developed in the frame of a previous project called Be Part of CSA. The training materials have been tailored to Italian, Spanish, Greek and Polish contexts, and have also been improved, with the creation of both a farmer-to-farmer booklet and a new training module on the Financial Sustainability of CSA. The second objective was to expand the outreach of the training programme to new CSA communities. This has been done through multiple test training sessions, with gender balance and a high level of representation of farmers and youth. A new generation of “CSA multipliers” have been successfully trained and equipped with the right mentoring tools (incl. the knowledge transfer kit). Additionally, the outreach has also been expanded through the use of digital tools, that comprise the first ever international series of webinars on CSA and the creation of a Hub, e.g. a e-learning platform offering a diversity of pedagogical contents (tutorial videos, webinar recordings, booklet, modules...). The third objective was to build and consolidate new alliances at local and international level. This was achieved through 2 different channels. First, through an improved cooperation with network members, other NGOs and policy makers, at all different levels of action: municipal, provincial, national, European and international. Second, the 3rd objective was completed thanks to awareness raising through social media and mainstream communication channels (national TV and radio broadcasts).The project focused primarily on what is sometimes called the European CSA community, which includes all the stakeholders willing to engage, or are already engaged, with CSA: farmers, consumers, network staff.

Europe’s rural and urban areas are facing increasing negative impacts from climate change, biodiversity loss, unsustainable resource use, and an increasing disconnect between citizens from urban and rural areas. These megatrends threaten the sustainability of urban development and associated food systems. Throughout Europe’s cities, different types of urban farming, such as gardens, rooftop or vertical farming, have emerged which could provide impactful responses to these megatrends. Policy-makers and practitioners urgently need knowledge on the benefits, impacts and risks of urban farming, to help them shape policy and legal frameworks that can foster benefits and mitigate risks of urban farming. FOODCITYBOOST will develop a knowledge-based decision-support tool, consisting of (i) evidence-based indicators of environmental, social and economic performance and impacts of urban farming at farm, regional and EU scale and providing (ii) guidance on policy instruments that foster the development of urban farming. The future potential of urban farming will be assessed in foresight analysis and scenario analysis, as well as development and prototyping of novel forms of urban farming. FOODCITYBOOST will closely collaborate with >100 stakeholders from 6 case studies, using an approach based on the idea of living labs. This allows us to learn from regions throughout Europe where urban farming thrives and is supported by regional policies. FOODCITYBOOST brings together expertise on social science and humanities, land systems, urban farming, and life cycle assessment, to expand the knowledge base on urban farming from an integrated perspective. We connect to the EFUA and NEW BAUHAUS initiatives to best take stock of recent insights, which allows us to stimulate the development of a varied landscape of urban farming that optimally fulfils the needs of communities and minimises negative impacts and risks.

The FoodSHIFT2030 project takes departure in the EU Food 2030 Research and Innovation Policy Framework, the EU’s commitment under the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to launch an ambitious citizen-driven transition of the European food system towards a low carbon circular future, including a shift to less meat and more plant based diets. By utilizing and supporting the transformative power of citizens already engaged in developing sustainable innovative food system solutions in European city-regions FoodSHIFT2030 will deliver an increase in food sector jobs and SMEs, an increase in citizen empowerment and urban-rural cohesion, and a lasting positive impact on food system sustainability that will continue beyond the project lifetime. A fast citizen-driven food system transition will be achieved by creating a framework and efficient mechanisms for maturing, combining, upscaling and multiplying existing food system innovations through the operationalization of nine citizen-driven FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs and twenty seven FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs established in existing and emerging city-region food system hubs distributed across Europe. The benefits of existing and accelerated food system innovations will be benchmarked against state-of-the-art food system innovations by assessing their effects on a set of FoodSHIFT Indicators. Strategies and advisory plans for citizen-driven food system governance will be co-created in the FoodSHIFT Accelerator Labs to support food system transition and foster market uptake of new food system innovations in the participating city-regions. A further transition of the food system beyond the FoodSHIFT2030 project will be obtained by creating a snowball effect starting with targeted knowledge transfer via a number of city and region networks working on facilitating the food system transition and continuing the establishment of FoodSHIFT Enabler Labs in other European and global city-regions.