The adoption of healthy and sustainable diets by residents requires practical knowledge for their implementation and adoption. In short, it requires practical cooking and meal preparation as well as eating habits skills. It is quite difficult to provide the above in a formal environment that focuses on what we “should” do. A set up that adopts an action learning methodology can be more effective in imparting the necessary knowledge and skills. The practice of a Collective Kitchen where all participants are allowed and encouraged to act, empowers people and offers them in a direct manner tools for a sustainable and healthy diet. City of Athens has implemented this action with 15 beneficiaries of the municipal clinics, and we have received a highly positive response from participants; in the evaluation we conducted, taste, recipes and cooking tips proved to be a lot more interesting than theoretical knowledge. This response corroborates our initial hunch that practical skills are necessary for a transition to sustainable food consumption models.

The Kharkiv Children Food Living Lab (KCFLL) was established as a platform for cooperation and the co-production of knowledge and solutions through shared local experiences. The core mission of KCFLL was to co-create and disseminate knowledge and innovative approaches to children’s meals. It explored various theoretical and practical aspects of children's food, addressing issues such as food production and storage, healthy meals for children in schools and families, food safety and biosecurity, festive foods in private and public settings, and urban food systems.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the KCFLL adapted to the wartime context, shifting its focus to address local survival needs. The lab reoriented its goals toward building food sustainability in Kharkiv under war conditions. The key challenges it aimed to address included maintaining social sustainability during wartime and determining how the Living Lab could continue its operations. In response, the Living Lab evolved, operating on new principles of transnationality, responsiveness, and volunteerism.

In the Altza district of San Sebastian, the Donostia Urban Lur project provides new farmers with access to agricultural plots in public land. They are equipped with a water supply, a 380 square metre greenhouse tunnel and access for mechanical tools. Fomento San Sebastian provides training, coaching and organizes farmers’ market with a festival character.
Altza farmers join the Guztiona Cluster, benefiting from its network and sharing needs with food chain stakeholders. Community activities like school visits help strengthen local relationships and food culture.

The City of Oslo has created guides and materials for school staff and teachers, including meat-free menus (age 13-15 and 16-18) for secondary school children, to promote sustainable and healthy school meals. These resources are relevant to cities, municipalities, and organizations managing school meals. Local governments, educational authorities, or companies responsible for school meal management could benefit from learning about implementing meat-free school menus, depending on country-specific roles and responsibilities.

The City of Oslo developed routines for food waste prevention and a system for food waste monitoring, using EQS Quality System and Microsoft 365 tools such as Power Apps and Power BI.
The solution addresses food waste in public nursing homes but can be adjusted and transferred to other settings. Besides, incremental introduced a new approach by focusing on developing lasting daily routines through participation and testing, rather than relying on traditional pilot programs or projects.

The City of Oslo collaborated with Höegh Real Estate Company and Sodexo Norway to experiment with sustainable and healthy food solutions in an office building in Oslo. The solution addresses the issue of unhealthy and unsustainable diets, which pose a threat to public health and food system sustainability. As many people consume one out of three meals at work, there is significant potential for providing healthy and sustainable food in the workplace. The main features of the solution include collaboration, experimentation, and data monitoring. This model can be replicated in similar settings.
Target groups: tenants/employers, real estate companies and canteen operators.

Developed by the City of Rijeka, these guidelines offer comprehensive strategies for food waste management, integrating insights from various fields. The guidelines aim to support municipalities, food service providers, and organizations in adopting more sustainable practices. The City of Rijeka is seeking partnerships for dissemination and further refinement of the guidelines. The guidelines provide a comprehensive approach to food waste management, combining policy, science, and practical advice, with adaptable solutions for various industries.

The Sustainable Cookbook, developed by the City of Rijeka, is a resource for promoting sustainable food consumption practices. It offers a collection of recipes that emphasize reducing food waste, using local ingredients, and encouraging environmentally friendly cooking methods. The cookbook innovatively combines recipes with waste-reducing techniques, promoting sustainability and supporting global efforts to reduce food waste.

The Food Waste Analyzer App is a digital tool designed to track and reduce food waste in various settings. By collecting and analyzing data, it helps users understand waste patterns and make data-driven decisions to minimize waste. The app is ideal for SMEs, food labs, and municipalities looking to enhance sustainability practices. Partnerships are sought for collaboration on further development, distribution, and implementation of the app across different sectors.
The app improves traditional food waste tracking with real-time analytics and personalized reduction strategies, aiming to reduce waste by at least 20% in early users based on pilot tests.

In Oct 2023 the Municipality of Rome opened a tender for the assignment (at a symbolic cost) of deserted agricultural land to young farmers and cooperatives. The tender includes commitment for the City to provide specific training and technical assistance, for free. The tender stays open, no deadline, in the meantime the Offices are implementing the town-planning, legal and technical due dilingence on the available land.
Expertise - from the new Food Policy Office of the Municipality of Rome 
Issues – the process needs to be accelerated by economic investments and human resources for the surveys and technicalities on the territory
Potential market/ application area -  EU cities and beyond

The 2015 Regulation for UCGs in Rome has been shared and used as a model by 10 cities in EU through the eu projects RU:RBAN and RU:RBAN Second Wave, closed in 2023. And through the GenerActor project in Colombia, 2024. Other cities could benefit from it, if included in dedicated law. Startıng from the Regulation for Urban Community Gardens (2015) the Roma FUSILLI LL has developed a substancial improvement of a policy and technical model for a Regulation for Urban Community Gardens, again through a bottom-up process with the Rome of UCGs Network “OrtiInComune” . It has been presented to the Municipality in Nov 2023 for the due official approval in 2024.
Expertise - from the OrtinComune organization of Urban Community Gardens and the Urban Community Gardens Office of the Municipality of Rome, Issues – needs advocacy to the eu politicians. EFUA final conference in Sept 24 could be a first step, Potential market/ application area -  the whole EU cities and beyond

Lessons for children, techers and families on growing food and food sustainability .  Improving the utility and educational services of the existing school gardens in nurseries and primary schools  - and creating new ones in secondary schools - through lessons, workshops and visits, and communication and dissemination campaigns. Expertise - from the OrtinComune organization of Urban Community Garrdens , Issues – to be included among the social services provided by the Urban Gardens hosted on Municipality land, Potential market/ application area -  the whole Municipality, the 15 Boroughs and the 20 Urban Community Gardens are in charge

The University of Pollenzo has developed a Circular Business Model that has been applied to Orti Generali and Locanda nel Parco (two social restaurants). This model aims to be a good practice that can sensitize other food-related businesses to adopt circular solutions.  This initiative aligns with Torino’s call for funding SMEs in circular economy projects, leading to seven organizations implementing new circular actions. Additionally, through the SME4GREEN project, the city of Torino has signed a Green Deal with 27 organizations focused on Circular Economy and Food. The University of Gastronomic Science has specific expertise in circular economy and food. This expertise was utilized by the city, along with Orti Generali and Locanda nel Parco to disseminate good practices. The main challenge is integrating circular practices into all SMEs. The project’s innovative strength lies in its holistic approach which has the involvement of about 100 students from the Gastronomic Science Course (Bachelor Degree) for the elaboration of circular proposals applicable to Living Lab contexts that focused around the theme of food (Orti Generali and Locanda nel Parco) .
This approach has the potential to be applied to all SMEs.
 

LÄHELLÄ! (=NEAR!) local food event is a sustainable food event concept, where local food producers and other organisations working with food sustainability issues have been invited to Tampere Market Hall for a day to present their products and activities to customers.
Municipalities can use the program TAMPERE has developed as an exemplary template for citizen engagement and stakeholder participation. 

Cooking classes for adults and children of primary school age, where you learn how to cook easy and inexpensive everyday vegetarian meals under the guidance of a local instructor. The aim is to give participants practical tips on how to easily incorporate plant-based dishes into their family diets by turning everyday favourites into vegetarian versions. They will also learn tips on food prepping, i.e. how to make busy everyday life easier by preparing meals in advance. In family meals, you will learn about food, cooking skills and how to work in the kitchen together with your children. Children's interest in food and cooking is increased when they are involved in the cooking process themselves. 
One adult and one child per family can register. The Carbon Neutral Actions development programme of the city of Tampere did offer residents of suburb the opportunity to participate in free Family cooking class at Tesoma school.

How would you like a tasty and green wall in your schoolyard? Or boxes with many edible plants that attract people and crustaceans? The "Grow your own food!" guides provide ideas and guidance for students and teachers alike. Plant cards help you choose which plants to grow, and the instructions in the guide help you grow your own seedlings from seed. EcoFellows Ltd. has produced the Growing your own food! guide as a part of the Fusilli project in cooperation with the teachers and pupils of the Juhannuskylä school in Tampere. The purpose is to inspire and encourage the cultivation of food crops at school.  There is two separate guides, one for teachers and one for pupils. Teachers material is providing assistance in the cultivation scheduling, highlighting pedagogical points and providing tips on how to to support the implementation of the activity. Pupils guide gives ideas and guidance on food crops growing. Plant cards help you choose which plants to grow. By following the instructions in the guide, you can grow your own seedlings from seed. You can even use the seedlings to make a wall of plants or plant them or plant them in a box. Grow enough seedlings to enough to take home when the summer holidays start. Potential market/ application area are elementary schools in Finland.

Local products produced in rural neighborhoods need a constant quality and sales force in urban neighborhoods. Providing various supports to rural producers then making healthy local food more accessible in urban neighborhoods. (Increasing institutional capacity with putting Hasanağa Food Hub at the center of the project.)

Nilufer Municipality was procuring  a service for taking soil samples from hundreds of various points in Nilufer. The laboratory that could perform soil, water and plant analysis in the region was only that one and that laboratory was about to close due to financial reasons, but Municipality needed its service more. Nilufer Municipality found the solution by purchasing the laboratory (with hiring the existing employees) that was about to close and transferred the management of the laboratory to Nilüfer Agricultural Development Cooperative (NILKOOP). In this way, soil analysis service could continue to be provided, and so it was. These services and investments provided for the protection of the soil and collaborations with cooperatives, producers and academicians are all made for a more sustainable Nilüfer.

Structured approach to more sustainable canteen operation with focus on Food Waste and Climate friendly meals/diets. This has been achieved thru' ; Identifying needs and motivation levels, gather baseline study and data (Food Waste and CO2 footprint), engage Management, Hands on training and knowledge building, Real time testing – preparing for sustainable food days, vision, strategy and target setting for sustainable public food, and Implementation

Differdange Municipality in LUX has doubled its efforts to communally produce organic fruits and vegetables via municipal allocation of land for organic gardening. Various products are being produced some of which are processed into products. Main challenge is to increase the amount of organic produce consumed by citizens. The products are organic, locally co-produced in Kondel Labs with the participation of children and target the local jam market.

Public production of vegetables in the centrally located Food Hub created by the municipality in an area of 2ha in the context of FUSILLI. The production was at 3 tons in 2023. It is expected to grow in 2024/2025 since the area cultivated is expanding. Differdange Municipality in LUX has doubled its efforts to communally produce organic fruits and vegetables via municipal allocation of land for organic gardening. The production is mainly distributed to public kitchens and amounts to 20% of all vegetables consumed by the children in local childcare centres. Main challenge is to increase the amount of organic produce consumed by children. The products are organic, locally co-produced in Kondel Labs with the participation of children (educational workshops). 

The pilot project uses AI-powered smart bins from Dutch start-up Orbisk to track and reduce food waste in a public kitchen. The city installed two bins in a public kitchen managed by Servior, the public establishment responsible for housing for seniors in Luxembourg.  The intelligent bins pilot project in Differdange addresses a significant problem in the agricultural and food sector: food waste. With approximately one-third of all food produced globally going to waste, this issue has critical environmental and economic implications. AI-powered intelligent bins offer a cutting-edge solution by automatically measuring and recognizing the type, quantity, and timing of food waste in professional kitchens. Key innovative features include real-time waste tracking and data analytics, which empower kitchens to optimize their operations and reduce waste. The potential market for this solution spans various applications, including restaurants, hotels, and large-scale public and private catering services, making it a versatile tool for promoting sustainability in the food industry.

The municipality has developed and helped to develop (with materials, knowledge, support and training) school gardens so that schools can produce something for their canteens, albeit on a small scale. The municipality helped with the installation of the gardens, Contributing as hands on examples to sustainable techniques towards less water agro-food production, these examples serve very well as education materials
Accompanying educational/training materials and a field notebook were also prepared for adults and children. It could be a great help for some canteens, especially schools in villages and smaller schools, and it could be a potential local help on agricultural and sustainable education for children and schools.

Creation of vertical gardens in the municipal market with species of public interest (aromatic) and available to those who want to take them and use them in their food. The municipality of Castelo Branco has created vertical gardens in the municipal market to beautify the place, use it as a place to teach children and adults, appeal to sustainability and help those who want to take some aromatic herbs with them to eat, thus replacing salt. Contributing as hands on examples to sustainable techniques towards less water agro-food production. A number of awareness-raising and explanatory actions on the subject have been and are being carried out for market attendees and visitors, as well as children. Potential use by local governments that are searching for ways to educate school children and adults in methods related to sustainable agriculture, and healthy eating habits.