Next Eurocities Working Group Food and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Regional Forum meeting in Bordeaux (27-29 September 2023)
How can cities foster food justice and ensure access to healthy, local and quality food for all? Learn more at the next Eurocities WG Food and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Regional Forum meeting in Bordeaux from 27 to 29 September, and discover inspiring examples from Bordeaux and other European cities. This meeting is for city representatives only.
Successive crises have increased the demand for food aid and drawn attention to wider inequalities in access to healthy and sustainable food. Food and diet inequalities are rooted in structural biases already affecting people with lower income, living in deprived areas, from ethnic minority backgrounds, disabled or from other vulnerable groups. Imbalances in food access contribute to overall health disparities.
How can cities meet the growing food aid demand and tackle those inequalities?
The food justice approach aims to understand better how socio-economic, cultural, gender and class disparities create inequalities in access to and participation in the various dimensions of the food system.
Urban policies incorporating the imperatives of food justice ensure nutritious, affordable, and culturally-appropriate food for all; they promote fair remuneration for producers and safeguard the rights of agricultural and food processing workers. They empower local stakeholders and communities to have control over the production and distribution of food and aim to increase access to healthy products.
Many cities are taking action by triggering local and urban production, delivering food aid solutions and engaging and empowering vulnerable groups in local governance schemes. For example, Bordeaux Metropole addresses the issue of healthy and sustainable quality food for all as part of its metropolitan food project.
During the next Eurocities WG Food and Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Regional Forum in-person meeting, city representatives will share experiences, solutions and concrete advice on the topic. Workshops, presentations, and site visits will also inspire them to co-create solutions to speed up and deepen agrifood transformation towards more inclusive and resilient systems.
Draft Agenda:
The agenda is still subject to possible changes and further refining. The start date and end time and date will not change.
Day 1– 27 September
| 9.00 | Registration |
| 9:30-10:00 | Welcome, and Introduction by: – the President of Bordeaux Metropole, Alain Anziani – the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Eurocities working group food, Andrea Magarini (city of Milan) and Natalia Boitot (city of Warsaw) |
| 10:00-10:10 | Presentation of Bordeaux Métropole’s involvement at the EU level and within Eurocities by Céline Papin |
| 10:10-10:45 | Introduction to Bordeaux Metropole and Bordeaux’s work on food by Ève Demange, Harmonie Lecerf Meunier, Patrick Papadato |
| 10:45 -11:15 | Coffee and tea break |
| 11:15-12:30 | Roundtable: How do cities and metropoles embrace Food Justice? What are the main objectives for cities, and what are the levers employed? Interventions from: – Megan Blake, Senior Lecturer, University of Sheffield – Paul Milbourne, Professor of Human Geography, Cardiff University – Nicholas Nisbett, Professor of Global Public Policy, University of Sussex – Marion Tanniou, Solidarity and Social Cohesion Advisor, France Urbaine Followed by an open discussion with the participants. |
| 12:30-14:00 | Lunch |
| 14:00-15:00 | World Cafe on food justice Cities representatives will share their latest work and approach to food justice. |
| 15:00-15:30 | Solutions from local stakeholders: Laboratoire d’Initiatives Alimentaires This project in one district of Bordeaux tries to work on food democracy. By empowering local residents to define their dreams and goals for healthy and local food. Currently, they work on a social garden, a local farmers market, and shared and social cooking events. |
| 15:30-16:00 | Coffee and tea break |
| 16:00-17:00 | World Cafe on food justice Cities representatives will share their latest work and approach to food justice. |
| 17:00-17:40 | Solutions from local stakeholders: social pantries / épiceries solidaires – Local’Attitude – L’épicerie des Capucins These two social markets will explain their internal functioning to give fair access for all to quality and local food. They will explain their active work to improve their supply with local and quality food. These two NGOs are part of a territorial network between social and solidary markets to improve local and quality supply. |
| 19.30 | Dinner offered by the City of Bordeaux |
Day 2 – 28 September
| 9.00 | Welcome coffee |
| 9:30-11:00 | Workshop on Food Justice in partnership with Birmingham City Council and the Food Foundation In 2021, Birmingham City Council launched the Global Food Justice Pledge (GFJP) at the 7th Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Global Forum. In response to the GFJP, a toolkit primarily intended for municipal and other local policymakers who are committed to achieving food justice in their communities is currently being developed. The session will present and demonstrate the tool in action and gauge feedback from other cities on whether it is a valuable and practical tool that can support them on their journeys to achieving a more equitable, sustainable, and resilient food system in their localities. |
| 11:00-11:30 | Coffee and tea break |
| 11:30- 12:30 | Workshop on Food Justice – continuation |
| 12:30- 14:00 | Lunch at Le Garage Moderne The Garage Moderne is a place of solidarity, artistic creation, craftsmanship, cooking and popular education. It hosts a cultural life and social spaces that are inseparable from its production activities. |
| 14:00- 18:00 | Site-visits: WG Food members will visit four solidarity food projects in the northern neighbourhoods of Bordeaux (Bacalan and Saint Louis) 1/ Social garden 2/ Food production in a bunker 3/ A new place dedicated to food solidarity in Bacalan 4/ Food processing laboratory integrated into a social centre |
| 19.30 | Joint dinner (at own expense) |
Day 3 – 29 September
| 9.00 | Welcome coffee |
| 9:30-11:00 | WG Food internal meeting |
| 11:00- 11:30 | Solutions from local stakeholders: Food social security for students by CREPAQ The project of experimentation of a Social Security of the Food (SSA) for students of the campuses of Bordeaux is supported by two associations: – CREPAQ, a regional association having for object to act for an ecological transition and solidarity in Nouvelle-Aquitaine – LA GEMME, association managing the local currency of Gironde, the “gem”. |
| 11:30- 12:30 | Fishbowl: reflections on food justice |
| 12.30 | End of the meeting |
Interested in joining? For city representatives only – Register by 16 September here https://shorturl.at/dDFIW
Interested in sharing an inspiring experience and good practice on the topic? Please get in touch with anja.decunto@eurocities.eu
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