“Crosscutting Managers” play a key role in Food Trails. Find out who they are and what they do!

One of the key roles in the governance structure of the Food Trails project is held by “Crosscutting Managers” (CCM), to ensure a systemic and innovative approach to implementing a healthier, sustainable and more inclusive food system in our 11 European cities.

The main task of Crosscutting Managers is to support cities’ Living Labs developments, addressing the four Food 2030 Priorities: 

• Circularity and Zero Waste – How to prevent, reduce and repurpose food waste?
• Innovation and Empowering Communities – How to better serve and empower all city communities through better food systems?
• Climate and Procurement – How to reduce emissions linked to food production, distribution and consumption?
• Nutrition for Sustainable and Healthy Diets – How to make sure city food services offer balanced diets to citizens?

With this goal, the Food Trails project involves four Crosscutting Managers, who were selected from the Food Trails consortium partners with the most experience in the field of the four Food 2030 Priorities. 

The CCM for Nutrition is from Birmingham (Shaleen Melu); the one for Innovation/Empowerment is from Slow Food (Francisca Feiteira, previously Yael Pantzer); the CCM for Circularity is from Milan (Alice Casiraghi); and the one for Climate from Copenhagen (Betina Bergmann Madsen and Mette Svendgaard Høgholm).

The mission of Crosscutting Managers is to understand, gather information, and monitor the work of the partner cities in developing their Living Labs Pilot, report on it, and suggest dedicated solutions for each of the Food 2030 priorities. To this end, Crosscutting Managers visit Food Trails cities on a regular basis.

The CCM visits feature workshops to break down the phases of each city’s Pilot, to assess their impact on the four Food 2030 priorities. The visit can also be extended for field visits to Living Labs’ partners and locations. 

During these visits, CCMs discuss issues specific to the cities’ Living Lab Pilot, expand the cities’ knowledge on specific topics, and foster cross-pollination of solutions among Food Trails cities.

After each visit, the CCM aligns with the other CCMs on the stage of development of the Pilot they have analyzed, and the impact metrics that help assess its success against the four pillars. These metrics will then be used by the cities to evaluate the further development of their Pilot actions.

The visiting CCM then produces a report to be shared with the city involved, research partners, other Food Trails partners, and potential experts who can further support cities’ work.

All CCM reports to different cities will eventually be aggregated into a handbook for the general public as a shared record of the progress and developments of all Living Labs. 

The work of Crosscutting Managers is one of the most interesting and innovative aspects of the Food Trails project. While waiting for the publication of the public handbook, follow us on social media to find out more about Crosscutting Managers’ visits.