The overall objective of this multi-actor, participatory project is to facilitate the use and increase the value of Neglected and Underutilised Crops (NUCs) in food chains to foster healthier diets and more sustainable food systems. To achieve this, DIVINFOOD will focus on interactive short and mid-tier value chains that can meet the growing consumer demand for: 1) healthy plant-based food; 2) products with a local/regional identity, and 3) diverse services and benefits received from agriculture and food. DIVINFOOD will study minor cereals and legumes in 3 geographical regions that face various climatic hazards and diverse socio-economic challenges to developing agrobiodiversity-rich value chains. DIVINFOOD will: - Co-develop, with consumers, new interactive marketing modes and channels valuing biodiversity use and its services/benefits, with the support of participatory guarantee systems and digital tools - Co-produce new and diversified plant-based healthy and appetising products and recipes from NUCs meeting consumers’ needs, from minimal or mild food processing and formulations better expressing NUCs’ potential - Benchmark diverse agroecological farming systems and techniques that improve NUCs’ performance, inter-specific biodiversity and the provision of citizen-focused agro-socio-ecosystem services - Breed more performant cultivars of cereals and legumes with local adaptation, intra-specific biodiversity, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, and potentiating nutritious and appetising food - Demonstrate new business models that diversify income and activities for farmers and small-scale processors who are using agrobiodiversity - Co-design pilot multi-actor territorial networks/social cooperatives in charge of managing, propagating and promoting NUCs. Design policy recommendations to promote their replication - Disseminate the results to relevant stakeholders to optimise their exploitation

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.

CONTEXTAddressing food challenges contributes to central topics of the EU. For instance, climate: food systems contribute 19%–29% of global greenhouse gas emissions; as well as health and waste/circular economy. Substantial improvements in all areas depend upon lifestyle choices and thus upon adult education.The Food Action program responds to a dual need: the need of adult learners for easily accessible factual and pedagogical support for sustainable lifestyle change; and that of society, given the importance of food in today's policy challenges of climate change, circular economy, preventive health, and social inclusion.OBJECTIVESThe major objective of this 2-year project was to develop and test a self-learning package for adults wishing to learn how to adopt more sustainable food habits; culturally adapted in four national and one international (English-language) version. This objective has been fully met.A secondary objective was to test different possible delivery mechanisms, including use of IT tools and local, national and international partnerships; monitoring and evaluating in such a way as to lay a basis for future dissemination activities. This objective has also been met.PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONSThe beneficiary was Global Action Plan International (GAP-I), registered in Sweden. It coordinates a network of organizations developing and delivering sustainable behaviour-change programs, as well as conducting action research into appropriate methods and tools, and offering publications and training programs for curriculum designers. The 4 partners are all members of the GAP network, with prior experience of working together.Germany: agado, based in München, works with employees, business and local authorities and is engaged in adult education. Has a broad network and cooperation with NGOs and local authorities. Conducts research concerning sustainability and climate aspects of eating habits.Hungary: TVE is a highly active national consumer network with experience of study circles and coaching, strong engagement in food questions, social media and mass media engagement.Italy: InEuropa specializes in project management, particularly of EU-supported projects. Experience of working with municipalities and NGOs, and with education. Social media engagement. Mentor to the Beneficiary.Spain: GAP Spain has long experience of working with adult education and behaviour change through interactive web programs. Broad network and cooperation with local authorities and food-related businesses.MAIN ACTIVITIESThe main activities concerned developing 3 outputs comprising the adult self-learning package, including translation and cultural adaptation in six languages: English, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, and (not originally foreseen) Basque.1. Workbook for adult learners, covering 3 main topics: Food Waste; Food, Climate & Environment; and Food & Health. Including all 3 topics is designed to elicit critical thinking and a broadening of perspective that empowers adult learners to make decisions based on what is good for them personally AND what is good for society and the environment.2. Manual for coaches, enabling competence-building in the general area of empowering coaching (a sought-after skill) as well as specifically for the Food Action program.3. An online reference Library of documents for further reading, embedded in a multilingual Food Action web site.The secondary activities concerned testing different delivery mechanisms, including selecting, adapting and testing IT tools as well as partnerships with different types of organizations; and publicizing the project and its outcomes.RESULTS AND IMPACTThis was a pilot project; the objective was to recruit 120 households to test the program (outcome: 264). The response is satisfactory: more than half the participants made behaviour changes that they have established as new habits; feedback regarding the materials is positive; trained Food Action coaches (target: 10, actual 39) find the skills generally useful and wish to continue supporting the program.Additionally, project team members in the 5 countries reported that their knowledge of food issues had improved, as well as their project management skills.The evaluation materials provide a base for further analysis and experimentation for scaling up dissemination and delivery of the program. Two key components are already clear: successful cross-sectoral partnerships, and improved IT tools.The media impact was far higher than anticipated, reaching close to 200,000 recipients via social media and other online activities (target: 7,000) and a further half million through mass media in Hungary.LONGER-TERM BENEFITSPreliminary results show that successful scaling up could lead to significant societal effects. For instance, a poll of some participants showed reductions in food waste and food miles of 10-15%, as well as a decrease in meat consumption.

Fostering a significant Triple Change concerning culture, food value chain, and policy in the food system is crucial for ensuring that sustainable food is desirable and trustworthy for consumers. To address the urgent need for a more sustainable food system that benefits the environment, society, and the economy, CUES (Consumers’ Understanding of Eating Sustainably) sets to foster the Triple Change through co-designing scientific methods and approaches to transmit and present sustainability related information to guide consumer knowledge and behaviour, and to determine the persuasive cues to promote sustainable consumer behaviour most effectively. CUES will develop nine interventions and a series of policy dialogues through a multi-actor participatory approach. This innovative approach goes beyond the state-of-the-art by addressing the complex interplay of factors in the food system and actively involving consumers, food value chain actors, and policymakers. The learning community, communication and behaviour change toolkits developed by CUES aim to remove the bottlenecks in current practice with respect to informing, motivating and engaging consumers, and to reach at least three million consumers, increasing their consumption of sustainable food.

"Food being one of three areas of production and consumption having the highest negative environmental impacts, it forms part of the European Commission’s keystone project called the European Green Deal. After decades of industrialisation, the need for more local and sustainable food systems is widely acknowledged in public policy discourse at international, EU, national, regional and local levels. Whereas the local and solidarity-based partnerships for agroecology (LSPA), among which Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is the best-known model, are increasingly recognized as an important initiative for sustainable territorial food systems, there is still a substantial gap at the policy-making levels in translating this acknowledgement into public policy objectives and bottom-up participatory and collaborative initiatives. SALSIFI aims to develop and implement an innovative transnational education programme reinforcing the capacity of CSA networks and civil servants at local, regional, national and EU levels to engage in collaborative public food policy-making processes. It will specifically look into upskilling staff in non-formal education to foster knowledge sharing; implement training to strengthen capacity building staff’s knowledge to engage in collaborative institutional processes; and to adapt the training into an innovative digital learning content for public authorities and other actors having influence on key aspects of local food initiatives (such as (green) public procurement, financing, etc.). The education and training programme will particularly target people associated with locally supported (LSPA) initiatives and CSA networks, and civil servants in local, regional, and national administrations whose work can influence the support of sustainable local food systems – engaging over 250 people in total.SALSIFI will develop a modular training programme (Output 1) addressing three themes: building a collective understanding of how to engage in institutional processes and create relevant spaces for advocacy at EU level; increasing participant understanding of how to collectively position at the local level; and sharing best practices for collaborative local policy making on sustainable food systems. The framework will be supported by a comprehensive tool kit (Output 2), and will be adapted into an innovative digital e-training content (Output 3). Cross-cutting through all outputs, a number of adult learners from the network members of the project, the Capacity Building Agents, aka ""CABBAGES"" will be engaged in training and learning activities developing their knowledge and skills to engage in collaborative food policy making processes. Modules will be specifically pilot-tested in 8 countries (E1-8), and the framework will be implemented by carrying out three training sessions addressing specific angles (C1-3). A larger event will disseminate the outcomes of the project and seek to attract future participation into the e-training content (E9). This Collaborative Training Framework is rooted in the Participatory Action approach for learning, whereby collective analysis and learning is at the core of the knowledge production, and serves to promote the active participation of participants in the issues that shape their lives. This approach is especially relevant for adult education as part of citizen action (whether as part of a citizen movement or as a consum-actor), as it affirms that experience can be a basis of knowing and that experiential learning can lead to a legitimate form of knowledge that influences practice. This reflects both the philosophy and objectives of the members of this consortium. SALSIFI will help develop a culture of international cooperation, and enhance the training capacities and skills in non-formal education of participating organisations. The implementation of the training will further lead to an increased awareness of best institutional engagement practices and relevant institutional processes in their respective countries as well as at EU level for CSA networks, and of the role of CSAs in sustainable territorial food systems for local, regional and national authorities. It will also result in the development of an e-training programme on URGENCI’s e-learning platform."