Our society is currently facing some of our biggest challenges ever. These challenges permeate all levels of daily life. Climate change not only threatens global food security by means of droughts and extreme weather, but also affects the health and wellbeing of people in vulnerable positions first (and hardest), making it a social issue as well.
In Lodz, seniors now have access to a newly set up vegetable garden where they can taste as well as grow their own vegetables. This embarks a great success in the journey of Living Lab Lodz. Elderly people have very specific dietary and nutritional needs and their eating habits impact the quality of their ageing processes.
The living lab in Alto Minho focuses on public school canteens, whose purpose is to promote the transition to healthier and more sustainable food consumption and production habits.
In Rotterdam, but also in other Dutch cities, food supply in public spaces has increased sharply in the past 15 years and the share of (unhealthy) fast food has grown strongly. Since 2004, the fast food share in Rotterdam has grown by 46%1. This increase is greatest in neighborhoods with a low socio-economic score.
Good Food Oxfordshire (GFO) is leading Oxfordshire’s role as a Living Lab within the FEAST project. We are working with our network of over 200 local food organisations – community groups, food and farming businesses, institutions and local councils - to address the challenges of access and affordability to healthy and sustainable food.