Empowering Public Food Procurement: pooling tools and good practices for public and local authorities towards sustainable food procurement Erasmus Project

Project Title

Empowering Public Food Procurement: pooling tools and good practices for public and local authorities towards sustainable food procurement

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Rural development and urbanisation; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Public procurement represents a decisive purchaser of food in Europe. Public authorities and local communities responsible for canteens and cafeterias in hospitals, schools etc. have into their hands a powerful opportunity to orientate food systems towards more sustainability, from the producer to the consumer.

Throughout Europe, innovative strategies are emerging at local and national scales in favour of a more sustainable public food procurement. A shift from “low cost” procurement schemes to environmentally and socially performant approaches is necessary, and for that shift to happen, numerous experiences have highlighted that support and training for staff members and representatives in local authorities is crucial. Indeed, it’s a challenge for local players to develop the capacities to organize a “re-connexion” with food supply chains (especially local agriculture), to acquire new management methods of costs in food facilities and to design new procedures and tenders, among others.

The aim of the project “Empowering Public Food Procurement” was to contribute to the empowerment of local players in the catering sector, by:
• putting together practical knowledge of trainers on how to build sustainable food procurement at local scale in different European countries;
• pooling concrete examples of good practices and innovative approaches in Europe, that can be mobilized in training activities for local actors;
• proposing concrete recommendations for representatives / chefs / managers of municipalities’ catering, and for trainers who support them;
• laying the foundation of European common leading principles to perform more sustainable food procurement in the catering sector.

The project brought together eight organizations in seven countries: France, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey and the Netherlands. The partner organizations all have competence in different areas of vocational education and training. They combine a broad spectrum of knowledge and practical know-how: consultancy and training skills for chefs, managers and municipalities’ representatives, expertise on sustainable food supply chains, experiences on designing transnational learning tools.

The geographical scope of the partners permitted to juxtapose contrasted national situations towards public procurement and food supply chains, for rich and valuable exchanges of practices. The partners have shared summaries on the situation of training activities and initiatives supporting sustainability in food procurement, and have investigated case studies providing good practice examples in local communities in each project country.

Two collective training sessions allowed the group to share their own field-based experiences and to gather country information and examples, enabling to sketch a European view of sustainability in food procurement support and training initiatives.

Thanks to the partnership, the lessons learnt from the project have been and will be widely disseminated to a diversity of target groups: chefs, managers and responsible representatives at local level; national and European professional and institutional networks, in the sustainable food sector, the catering sector, national and European associations / initiatives run by local authorities.

In a nutshell, the project has led to enhance trainers’ skills and expertise to support local communities, to provide orientations and practical recommendations for actors on-the-ground in the catering and agrofood sectors, and to raise awareness among decision makers for a switch to a more environmentally and socially performant food procurement in Europe.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 86760 Eur

Project Coordinator

ECOZEPT FRANCE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• STICHTING BIONEXT
• Equalita, Institut für Qualifizierung und Vernetzung in Europa e.V.
• Kaiblinger & Zehetgruber OG
• Zivy venkov
• Delphine Ducoeurjoly
• CANAKKALE ONSEKIZ MART UNIVERSITESI
• INSTITUT ZA TRAJNOSTNI RAZVOJ