Category Archives: Food

New EU project ROOTED is starting!

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Last month, the ROOTED consortium gathered in Brussels and Lille for its first in-person meeting, bringing together researchers, community kitchens, NGOs, food producers and public authorities to explore how Landed Community Kitchens (LCKs) can help transform Europe’s food systems.

LCKs combine access to food, social inclusion and community building. By connecting local food production with neighbourhood spaces where people can access, prepare and share food, they offer new opportunities to build more inclusive, sustainable and resilient food systems.

Through 8 Living Labs and a network of 50+ kitchens across 20 cities and 10 countries, ROOTED will explore how these initiatives can grow and become a lasting part of Europe’s food infrastructure.

The kick-off included visits to community kitchens, food gardens, social groceries and cooperative supermarkets, meeting the organisations already connecting food, community and place.

Together, the consortium will explore key questions:
>> How can community kitchens connect local food production, access to nutritious food and social support?
>> What policies, partnerships and governance models can help them thrive?
>> How can place-based approaches address structural inequalities in our food systems?

A big thank you to all the hosting partners and organisations who welcomed us and shared their inspiring work. And thanks to all ROOTED partners for bringing their knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to this journey!

Read more about this project and it’s kick-off.

Picture: ROOTED, Eutropian

Playing for change: games that bring people together around food

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How can games help people connect with their neighbours, share food, and create more sustainable communities? The CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement, developed by partners including Wageningen University & Research, brings together practical tools, resources and games that encourage social participation in food-sharing activities.

From exploring the future of food sharing to caring for community gardens and discovering edible plants, these games offer creative ways to learn, exchange experiences and work together on local food-related challenges.

Exploring the future of food sharing

Food-sharing initiatives can strengthen social connections and contribute to more sustainable food systems. But how do these initiatives work in practice, and what challenges do they face?

The game The Future of Food Sharing invites players to explore these questions together. Using Quest Cards, Tool Cards and optional Risk Cards, players consider real-life challenges and discuss possible approaches to food-sharing initiatives. The game offers a practical way to exchange ideas and explore solutions collectively.

Finding common ground in community gardens

Community gardens bring people together around a shared space, but maintaining one also involves everyday decisions and challenges. The game Common Ground explores what it takes to care for a community garden.

Players consider topics such as teamwork, biodiversity, harvesting, climate pressure and soil health. By working through different situations, they can reflect on how to manage shared spaces, balance different priorities and care for the environment together.

Learning about food sharing through play

Food sharing can also be a way to introduce children to healthy eating, nature and community cooperation. In Grandma is Coming!, players work together to collect ingredients from a neighbourhood food forest and complete Grandma’s favourite healthy recipe before she reaches the end of the path.

Along the way, children learn about food forests, composting, healthy eating and the idea that food can come from places beyond the supermarket. The game combines cooperation and play with an introduction to more sustainable food practices.

Discovering edible plants and sharing food memories

How many edible wild plants do you know? The free print-and-play card game Let’s Eat invites players to explore the plants growing in their urban surroundings, share food memories and create recipes with their neighbours.

The game encourages players to get to know one another, exchange experiences and develop new recipes using wild plants found in the city.

Explore the Citizen Engagement Library

These games show how playful activities can open up conversations about food, sustainability and community life. They provide opportunities for people to share knowledge, explore different perspectives and consider how they can work together in their own neighbourhoods.

The games are part of the CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement, developed by project partners including Wageningen University & Research. The library brings together practical tools, resources and games designed to support engagement and social participation in food-sharing activities.

Would you like to try the games yourself? Explore the CULTIVATE Library of Citizen Engagement and watch the tutorials to learn how to play and use the games in your own community.

The games were developed as part of the CULTIVATE project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme (grant agreement No. 101083377).

XXI IASC Biennial Conference 2027 | Call for Panels, Roundtables, Workshops & Tutorials

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We’re delighted to share that the call for panels, roundtables, workshops, and tutorials is now open for the XXI IASC Biennial Conference, taking place 21–25 June 2027 in Makassar, Indonesia, with opportunities for online participation.

We’re especially proud that our colleague Oona Morrow is serving on the programme committee, reviewing submissions for the Food as a Commons theme.

This theme challenges the dominant view of food as a commodity and instead explores food as a shared resource that is governed collectively, valued beyond markets, and essential for social and ecological justice. It welcomes contributions on topics including:
>> Governance and institutions for food commons
>> Shifting narratives and values around food
>> Decolonial, Global South, and more-than-human perspectives on food systems

Regional examples from Indonesia and neighbouring countries are particularly encouraged, alongside cross-thematic collaborations.

The theme aims to bring together evidence from food commons initiatives worldwide while co-developing policy proposals for Universal Food Access and strengthening North–South and South–South collaborations.

🗓️ Submission deadline: 12 August 2026

Please note that this is not the call for individual papers, but for those wishing to organise panels, roundtables, workshops, or tutorials.

We encourage our network of researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and community partners to consider contributing to this important conversation on resilience, collective action, and the future of food systems.

Find out more and submit your proposal here.

Standing in Solidarity with Palestinian Farmers in the Occupied West Bank

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This blog was written by Eleni, a student of Wageningen University who traveled to Palestine at the end of last year to support the olive harvest. In this blog, she reflects on her experiences and shares her thoughts on the responsibility of Wageningen University.

While media attention had been focused on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, media coverage has been minimal in covering increased Israeli military incursions and settler violence in the West Bank, which is home to nearly three million Palestinians. Many of them are being forcibly displaced either due to settler violence attacks or the demolition of their homes by Israeli military forces as part of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing plan of the West Bank.

With more than 500,000 Israelis illegally (under international law) living within the West Bank in settlements and outposts, Israeli settlers are encouraged to destroy Palestinian property, olive groves, and kill animals and civilians. This systematic violence is backed by the Israeli government and often occurs under military protection. I experienced a fragment of this violence during my stay in Palestine.

At the end of October 2025, I visited the West Bank together with my friend Claire. We volunteered at the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), a Palestinian agricultural organization affiliated with numerous international networks, among them the ‘La Via Campesina’ network. As volunteers, we joined UAWC’s annual olive harvest campaign called “BAQA” (بَقاء), meaning ‘to remain’ in Arabic—expressing steadfastness, rootedness, and resistance against the occupation and colonizer’s violence.

Continue reading →

Upcoming PhD defence: Thirza Andriessen

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We are proud to share that Thirza Andriessen of the Rural Sociology Group will be defending her PhD thesis entitled “Caring for Dignity in Food Assistance: Navigating Norms and Moralities”.

When: February 20, 13.00 hrs
Where: Omnia, Wageningen University

Abstract
This PhD research explores how food assistance in wealthy countries shapes the dignity of recipients. Food charities are criticised for being stigmatising and for framing food poverty as an individual problem rather than a social and political issue. This study focuses on newer forms of food assistance, such as social supermarkets and grocery budgets, which aim to offer support in more dignified ways. Based on three case studies in Belgium and the Netherlands, supplemented by a literature review, the research shows that dignity is shaped in everyday situations: how people are treated, how much choice they have, and how rules are applied. Shopping in a “normal” setting and having product choice can support dignity, but these models can also reinforce moral expectations about financial responsibility and create new forms of dependence, for example on digital systems. The research concludes that there is no single “dignified” model; dignity is enacted through daily practices, care relationships, and wider social norms and moralities.

Online streaming
The defence can also be followed online via a YuJa livestream. Note: the link will become available about 5 minutes before the start (click the 🔔 Event in the top-right corner and then select “Thirza Andriessen”)