From 21 to 27 July, the SAPIENS Network Partner Organization Eating City held its 8th Summer Campus “The future we want” at the beautiful Bergerie de Villarceaux, near Paris. Participants from 15 countries ranged in age and professional experience, but they all shared a passion for food and sustainability. Dibya Rathi (ESR 10) and Chiara Falvo (ESR 15) joined the second part of the Campus (23-27 July), which was dedicated to Sustainable Public Food Procurement, School Meals and Food Policy.
On 24 July, Maurizio Mariani, gave an introductory talk on the history of the association, its aims, and some significant achievements, such as the production of the Risteco Handbooks and the model “La Ville Qui Mange”. He provided key data on the European public food market and introduced some concepts relevant to sustainability and agro-food supply chains, such as life cycle thinking and system vision. Finally, he pointed out that Sustainable Food Procurement is gaining momentum, as also evidenced by the numerous organizations engaged in public policy advocacy and the many major EU-funded projects on the topic.
Two European projects in which the Eating City is currently involved were presented. First, Marzia Bethaz introduced SchoolFood4Change (SF4C), an EU-funded project, headed by ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability and co-created by a consortium of 43 European partners. The project promotes healthy and sustainable eating at school, together with food education at different levels. It involves the training of cooks, caterers and public procurers at the city level and aims to create a ripple effect, impacting up to two million citizens in the 12 participating EU countries. Among the participants, S4FC project partners were the representatives from the Municipalities of Ghent, Copenhagen, and Lyon, as well as Slow Food Italia and the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo.
Afterwards, Chiara Falvo introduced the SAPIENS Network, its members, main activities and objectives. She spoke about the research she is carrying out at the University of Turin, investigating mechanisms to promote sustainable food and catering procurement in different European countries. She explained that through the partnership with Eating City, she will have the opportunity to do a secondment in the French Department of Dordogne. She will also collaborate with the association ISLE, of which Professor Nidal Shaban, guest speaker at the Campus, is a member.
Chiara also noted her colleague Dibya Rathi‘s research, which is presently focusing on the potential of short food supply chains to empower small business owners, who are mostly women and other minority genders. During the Campus, Dibya got the chance to interact with procurement experts from different countries who deal closely with short supply chains and learn the real-life practical implications of this concept.
In the afternoon, Cinta Peerdeman, Sustainability Consultant at ENERGiK, gave a presentation on the interconnections between food and climate change, providing data and examples on how the food system is both the cause and the casualty of climate change. She shared the inspiring story of Samsø, a Danish Island which built a sustainable green economy and became carbon negative in 10 years. Cinta stressed that the Island’s inhabitants broke “the fear of change” by making everyone part of the decision making process. She then showcased some innovative systems that integrate renewable energy production with food production, such as exploiting wind turbines in the sea for mussel farming and developing agrivoltaics systems, which combine agricultural and photovoltaic production on the same land.
During the evening session, Claudia Paltrinieri, shared the inspiring journey of Foodinsider, of which she is founder and editorial manager. Created as an observatory at the initiative of a group of parents concerned about the quality of Italian school canteens, FoodInsider later became a social promotion association, working on awareness raising and education on the topics of food, environment, health and participation. As “a relationship platform”, it wants to connect all the stakeholders around school canteens, sharing knowledge and valuing what they achieve. FoodInsider assesses school canteens in Italy using questionnaires and after publishes the results in a rating, which is also reported at the political level. The strength of this approach lies, on one side, in identifying virtuous realities and encouraging others to replicate such examples, and, on the other, in placing public food procurement at the center of the evaluation of public administrations’ work, resulting in a strong reputation effect. It also allows to track evolution over time and spur improvement. Finally, Claudia pointed out that following the adoption of the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) Law, there has been an overall improvement in the quality of canteens in those Municipalities that have adopted them.
Antonio Ciappi, general manager of Qualità & Servizi, a public company providing canteen services for Sesto Fiorentino and other neighboring Tuscan municipalities, brought us an example of virtuous in-house management. The success of this model, enabled by a specific provision of the Italian Public Contract Code, is mainly due to the development of a school catering based on Slow Food principles. It aims at delivering ‘excellent, nutritious, and fair’ food and creating a community of actors committed to accomplish this goal. Ciappi emphasised the importance of public canteens as a reflection of local production and as a catalyst for agricultural development and conversion to organic methods. The emphasis on waste reduction is also noteworthy, with the development of a monitoring system to collect data on children’s meal intake and to recover surpluses and distribute them to charity organizations.
Paola Trionfi, Master Lecturer in Sustainable Food at the University of Padua, AIAB catering manager and FoodInsider member also spoke during the presentation.
On 25 July Betina Bergman Madsen, Chief Procurement Officer for the Municipality of Copenhagen and specialist in sustainable and organic procurement, gave a presentation titled on “The power of Public Procurement in the City of Copenhagen”. She detailed the key steps of the procurement process for public canteens, starting with the identification of the political demands, as well as of stakeholders’ needs and market capacity, then awarding the contract and, finally, the contract management.
Pursuing the initial objective of expanding organic production to reduce water pollution, in 15 years Copenhagen went from 45% to 90% of organic ingredients in public canteens with no extra costs. Currently the main goal of the City’s public food service is to provide “healthy, nutritious and delicious food that is actually eaten”. In addition to the advantages of cooking meals mainly on-site and the adoption of increasingly ambitious environmental criteria, other successful aspects of the ‘Copenhagen model’ are effective communication and education strategies. To name a few instances, the tender requirements are related to the relevant SDGs, and the contracting authority organizes multiple consultations and explanatory sessions both with the kitchen staff and the potential bidders before and after the tender. Furthermore, students are educated about food diversity and connected with farmers and chefs to understand how food is grown and prepared.
In the afternoon, Tamara Bruning, Head of Cleaning and Catering services for the City of Ghent, presented the Ghent’s food policy, which is based on three pillars: 1. short and sustainable food chains; 2. nothing goes to waste (avoid & deal with surpluses); 3. everyone eats sustainable (healthy food & social cohesion).
Tamara emphasized that, as a result of continuously building on lessons learned, Ghent currently has “the most mature tender for catering services in terms of sustainability.” In her opinion, procurement strategy success depends on factors such as the maturity of the market, meeting the needs of the customer, having the commitment of the customer and the available budget. Ghent’s Sustainable School Catering is based on the declination of the triad People, Planet and Profit in procurement criteria. In 2020, with the collaboration of the Cool Food Pledge, the City calculated meals footprint, identifying a 20% reduction in GHG emissions, that was mainly achieved by reducing portions and meat consumption.
On 26 July, Robin Gourlay delivered the Summer Campus’s last presentation, covering Public Food Policy. He has worked for the Scottish Government on the delivery of the National Food and Drink Policy and was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire” (OBE) for his services. In Scotland, “the recipe for success” was a cross-cutting and comprehensive food policy – including health, education, economy, public food, security, environment – created in 2014. This year (2022) the policy was enshrined in the “The Good Food Nation Bill”, a law enacted to create coherence between policy at the national and local levels, setting clear outcomes, indicators and policies across a range of areas relating to food and requiring the government, local authorities and health boards to create good food nation plans.
Robin then presented key aspects of the whole school approach for school meals adopted in East Ayrshire, which dedicated attention to enhancing the profile of those involved in school food, as well as connecting local producers, schools, and communities, also by leveraging the visibility of school food service. Finally, he stressed that procurement rules are not a barrier to sustainability or attaining excellent results, but rather are there to make it safer to do so by assuring equal treatment and transparency.
During the afternoon roundtables, Chiara Falvo had the opportunity to act as a facilitator. One of the sessions focused on the Buy Better Food Campaign, with groups discussing how we can support the campaign through our personal choices or professional actions, how we may reach a wider audience, and why we believe buying “better food” is necessary. If you’re interested in our answers, stay tuned!
The Eating City Summer Campus was a highly formative and enjoyable experience. Learning from and sharing ideas with champions of sustainable food procurement inspired and motivated us a lot for our work in the SAPIENS Network!
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