Interventions into the Foodscape
Working together with citizens, municipalities and local food-related organisations, we set up real-life interventions into the foodscape, based on the knowlegde from the fieldwork and surveys. We use art-based methods to re-orient the understanding of household food practices and inform a sustainable design of the foodscape.
What will it take to really change the foodscape?
To create fertil ground for interventions into the foodsape to make a lasting impact, we work together with local municpalities to generate political support and establish public-private cooperations with shared ownership. It is good to realize that the interventions are not an end point. The 'end product' is the situation in which a sustainable environment is continuously worked on together with all parties involved. Communication and monitoring & evaluation are key here. Together, these prerequisites form the basis for all activities carried out by the local foodscape network consisting of policy makers, professionals and citizens.
From the start, we aim for independent implementation of the approach within the network. Municipalities are encouraged to be the ones who kickstart the approach and our team supports them ass advisors, coaches and experts.
These interventions emphasizes the importance of community, learning through experience and of adapting the material food environment. The approach consists of multiple interventions that focus on developing skills, adjusting prevailing perceptions about food and adapting the material environment. This approach involves learning, experiencing and transforming the foodscape. By developing practical skills, using one's senses well, and using material resources smartly, the community can move closer to a future where food waste is a thing of the past, neighborhoods have stronger ties, and sustainable eating is the norm.
Scrap Truck
A cooking class on "sustainable eating" will tend to attract the same kind of people. This is why we bring the kitchen to the neighborhood with a food truck. This has several advantages, namely you ensure that the neighborhood gets to know each other, which gives them the opportunity to exchange knowledge and skills and to knock on each other's door faster for 'a cup of sugar'. Residents are invited to bring food leftovers from their refrigerator to the food truck. Together with an experienced chef, they learn how to turn these leftovers into healthy, complete meals. So this initiative not only encourages more sustainable food habits, but also strengthens the neighborhood spirit.
Grocery stores pact
The foodscape cannot be changed without involving the current largest designers of that environment: supermarkets. Our research has shown that the influence of the supermarket on citizens food practices is substantial, especially in (sub) urban area's. Calling large corporations to own up to their responsibilities in creating a more sustainable foodscape can make a world of difference. Creating a 'pact' that ensures that supermarkets change what is offered, how it reaches and leaves the supermarket and how the supermarket is designed can directly impact the local food system. But, it also has the indirect effect of showing citizens that they are not in this alone, and that large players in the foodscape are also willing, and actually making the change towards reducing emmisions.
Community Compost
Habits cannot be changed if the environment remains the same: food waste persists if the material ability to dispose of it rests on the current system, where waste is 'out of sight, out of mind'. This is why we are launching a neighborhood compost project. By working with residents to figure out how the neighborhood compost should take shape, where a bin should be located and what the compost will be used for, it creates shared responsibility with residents and the community. By composting, residents learn to turn kitchen waste into something valuable, and begin to look differently at what constitutes "waste. Through placing the bin in the neighbourhood, the material environment is more equiped to help citizens eat sustainably.
Community Garden
A community food garden is a piece of land designed and arranged for growing crops with others. Making land available for a food garden changes the material environment in which food practices develop. Citizens learn how to grow, harvest and process their own food. Being involved in the process of growing food gives people a better understanding of where their food comes from, how it is grown and the efforts involved. Also, growing food yourself often brings healthier food choices and more knowledge about the environmental impact of food, which could be enlarged by hosting events at the community garden. Food gardens enable people to grow some of their own food, making them less dependent on external food sources. But it is primarily the newly learned skills, contact with, and knowledge about food that makes food practices less dependent on the supermarket and pre-processed and packaged foods.