The CULTIVATE Food Sharing Stories webinar series provided a platform for 10 Food Sharing Initiatives (FSIs) to exchange experiences, challenges, and strategies for sustainable food sharing. The series fostered a Community of Practice, and highlighted innovative approaches to food saving and redistribution.The CULTIVATE webinar series was structured into three thematic blocks, each addressing critical aspects of food sharing and saving. It was discussed amongst FSIs that food sharing and food saving are often interconnected but conceptually distinct. While food sharing is rooted in community-based practices that seek to bring people together, food saving is primarily concerned with reducing waste and optimizing resource use. The distinction was highlighted throughout the webinar series as FSIs shared their approaches and best practices. Key discussions explored the intersection of food sharing and saving, emphasizing community-building, sustainability, and logistics. FSIs addressed challenges such as legal barriers, financial sustainability, volunteer retention, and regulatory complexities while showcasing solutions like digital platforms, alternative funding models, and policy advocacy. One core theme was the systemic failure of global food distribution and how FSIs combat food waste, CO₂ emissions, and social inequality. Technical solutions were key, with FSIs integrating food rescue apps, automated tracking systems, and digital logistics tools. Discussions also focused on scaling initiatives, ensuring financial stability through social enterprises, cooperative memberships, crowdfunding, leveraging storytelling and media outreach for public engagement. FSIs also emphasized education and volunteer engagement, particularly involving schools and youth, through food education activties. Advocacy for clearer legal frameworks was a recurring theme, highlighting the need for policies that support food sharing rather than hinder through regulations.

• Food Sharing Stories - YouTube playlist
• Food Sharing Stories - webinar take-aways

Sustainability reporting for large food corporations is emerging in Europe, but contributions of other food actors, including food sharing initiatives (FSIs) such as community gardens, kitchens and food redistribution initiatives, are rarely captured. Sharing Solutions services support FSIs, municipalities and food supply actors to establish sustainability impacts from food sharing activities. Services include the Toolshed, a free, automated, online Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) tool for FSIs. It comprises 104 indicator questions across 34 impact areas covering social, environmental, economic and governance pillars. Each question is mapped to a relevant Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). Through the CULTIVATE project, 12 FSIs, three municipalities and multiple food supply actors in Barcelona, Milan and Utrecht trialled the services. The resulting SIAs indicate that FSIs contribute to 15 of the 17 SDGs and have significant aggregate impact at the UPU scale across all pillars of sustainability. FSIs can register for free on the Sharing Solutions platform to gain access to The Toolshed SIA. Once registered they can complete a starter or main SIA report. FSIs can share their impact reports, videos, and photos on The Talent Garden platform, and they can join The Greenhouse, an online community of practice. Municipalities can use Sharing Solutions to conduct an SIA for their area and food supply actors can commission an SIA of their support for FSIs. Sharing Solutions services enable a greater understanding of UPU food system sustainability. The Toolshed helps FSIs examine their impacts in relation to their goals and SIA reports communicate impacts to key stakeholders including participants, investors, donors and regulators. Municipalities can develop a fuller picture of their food systems to ensure sound policy development. Food supply actors can use Sharing Solutions services to better understand and communicate the impacts created by their supports to FSIs.

• Link to SIA on platform
• Sharing Solutions LinkedIn
• Project Youtube channel

Food sharing offers numerous social, economic, and environmental benefits. To make these benefits more accessible, we research, test, and co-create tools and games that can support citizen engagement and social inclusion in food sharing initiatives. These are collected in the Library of Citizen Engagement. In the city of Utrecht we have co-created  serious games with food sharing initaitives (FSIs) to stimulate citizen engagement in food sharing. The games support citizen enagement by helping people connect and learn from one another and have a good time while learning about topics such as growing together, cooking and eating together, and the prevention and redistribution of food waste. Four serious game prototypes were designed. "Oma komt's eraan" is a children's game about foraging and composting in an edible neighborhood. "Let's Eat" is a game about the edible neigbourhood of Rijnvliet. "Common Ground" has been co-designed and tested with urban gardening initiatives. And the "Futures of Food Sharing" card deck game is growing with the CULTIVATE project. Practitioners can use these games to engage with citizens and find new volunteers or interested parties to work with. For example, "Future of Food Sharing", can be used with policy makers to create better futures for food sharing, while "Common Ground" gives players a sense of what it means to build and mantain an urban garden, teaching players about the challenges they will encounter in real life. In "Let's Eat" players learn about the edible wild plants growing in Rijnvliet, as well as harvesting, cooking, preservation, and maintainance. All of the games bring people together, who may not have come together otherwise. The games will be available for print and play through the Library of Citizen Engagement, and can be played in public, private, and community settings. We do reccommend using them in combination with other citizen engagement tools, with dedicated community space, and a game host or facilitator. 

• Library of Citizen Engagement
• Three Serious Game Prototypes
• Library of Citizen Engagement: Citizen Engagement with Food Sharing and Resilie…

The Food Waste Hubs is an urban-scale model of food recovery aiming to reduce food waste and promote social equity by redistributing it to people in need. The City of Milan partnered with Polytechnic University, Assolombarda, Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione Snam, and some 25 civil society organisations to provide the city with a polycentric and capillary logistic system able to cover diverse types of food donors and reach recipients in every district. The programme leveraged a combination of favourable elements like a robust legal framework, a favourable policy environment and a committed public engagement. 

Key challenges included coordinating among diverse stakeholders and ensuring efficient logistics. Opportunities involved enhancing community engagement and establishing sustainable models for other cities. 

In 2024, the network expanded from five to eight hubs, recovering 795.3 tons of food—a 25% increase from 615 tons. In 2023 this effort reached 14,973 households, benefiting over 126,000 individuals, including 3,867 minors, equating to approximately 1.59 million meals and serving 176 associations.

The Foody Zero Waste Hub at the Sogemi food market was particularly effective, collecting over 440 tons of food through collaborations with 99 wholesalers, benefiting over 100 third-sector organizations.

Milan's approach showcases the effectiveness of localized food waste interventions and highlighted some recommendations for replicating:

• Forge partnerships among municipal authorities, private entities, and non-profits to enhance resource sharing and coordinated efforts.

• Implement volunteer programs and awareness campaigns to foster a culture of sustainability and collective responsibility.

• Introduce supportive policies, such as tax incentives for businesses donating surplus food, to encourage broader participation and investment in food recovery initiatives.

• Food policy. The Food Aid Hub network consolidates: in 2024, over 795 tons of f…
• Food Sharing Governance Landscape Analysis in CULTIVATE hub locations: Milan

Food sharing is experiencing rapid growth in cities throughout Europe, presenting significant opportunities to promote sustainability and equity within urban food systems. The Food Sharing Governance Landscape Analysis in Barcelona seeks to deepen the understanding of the governance landscape surrounding various food sharing initiatives, including community gardens, food waste recovery and redistribution initiatives, and initiatives emerging from the social and solidarity economy. The evidence of this report is based on primary and secondary data, mainly relying on a combination of document analysis and interviews with key stakeholders to understand which critical elements shape the governance of food-sharing initiatives in Barcelona. The report examines the regulatory frameworks that impact the initiatives in these three areas, the key actors involved, their relations, and the diversity of the projects emerging in each of these three food sharing areas. Moreover, it identifies the primary beneficiaries of food sharing initiatives and characterises the barriers and enablers that affect their success. Ultimately, for each of these three areas, the report offers recommendations for local governments, food-sharing initiatives, and the private sector to foster their development and maximise the impact of these community efforts in terms of sustainability and equity.

• Food Sharing Governance Landscape Analysis in CULTIVATE hub locations: Barcelona
• L'agricultura urbana compartida a la ciutat de Barcelona: una anàlisi de govern…
• Reaprofitament i redistribució alimentària: una anàlisi de governança

Data on urban and peri-urban (UPU) food system actors and organisations is incomplete. An essential prerequisite for transitioning UPU food systems towards sustainability is comprehensive information about the food initiatives which operate within them. While online directories of commercial food businesses exist in many UPU areas, food sharing initiatives (FSIs) such as community gardens, kitchens and food redistribution initiatives rarely appear in these. The CULTIVATE project has developed an automated mapping tool to help close this knowledge gap. The Food Sharing Map developed in CULTIVATE uses AI queries to identify, classify and map FSIs in specific UPU areas. The European Food Sharing Dictionary was used to ensure correct terminology in native languages for this process. The resulting map is interactive. Users can search for FSIs by location, food sharing activity - growing, cooking, eating, redistributing - and by the mode of sharing used, e.g. gifting, bartering, collecting and selling. The CULTIVATE project will map 200 UPU by the end of the project globally. The Food Sharing Map is open access and free to use. It can be used by: citizens looking for opportunities to get engaged in food sharing; FSIs who wish to connect with other FSIs in their UPU; food supply actors looking for recipients for food donations; and municipalities wishing to know the type and distribution of FSIs across an UPU area to help inform and evaluate their policies. Adding new FSIs to mapped cities is easily accommodated. Functionality for UPU expansion is being incorporated within the AI tool and can be requested for a fee.

• CULTIVATE Briefing note - Food sharing landscapes in Hub city locations
• Food Sharing Landscapes in CULTIVATE Hub Locations: Utrecht City Profile
• Food Sharing Landscapes in CULTIVATE Hub Locations: Milan City Profile
• Food Sharing Landscapes in CULTIVATE Hub Locations: Barcelona City Profile
• The Mapping, Tracking and Monitoring of FSIs: Manual Mapping Protocol
• The European Food Sharing Dictionary
• Manual for categorising FSIs, including the European Food Sharing Dictionary
• Evolving foodscapes: Tracing trajectories of urban and peri-urban food sharing …