Capacity building for food loss and waste prevention and reduction in cities

VENUE: Veles e Vents (Edificio Veles e Vents La Marina de València, Poblados Marítimos, 46024 Valencia)
DATE: Tuesday, October 8th 2024 from 9:00 to 18:00

Food waste is a market failure and an environmental failure that results in the throwing away of more than US$1 trillion worth of food every year and that generates an estimated 8–10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Just as urgently, food waste is failing people: even as food is being thrown away at scale, up to 783 million people are affected by hunger each year. (1)

This event builds on last year’s one, organised by the World Sustainable Urban Food Centre of Valencia (CEMAS) and the European Food Information Council (EUFIC), a High Level Event on Food Loss and Waste, “A multi-stakeholder perspective on food loss and waste reduction strategies”, but focused in this edition on the capacity of cities to act.

Objetives of the event:

  • To raise awareness of the current situation in the European Union, the objectives set, the legislation in force, the funding programmes and the tools available.
  • To promote an exchange of experiences and knowledge between European cities on public policies and initiatives to reduce food loss and waste.
  • To create a space for dialogue between cities with the aim of addressing their capacity building. To address the challenges and difficulties, but also the possible keys to success.

Concept note

Programme

  • 9:00 – 9:30 Welcome coffee

  • 09:30 – 09:45 Opening

    • Laura Fernández, EUFIC Director.
    • Carlos Mundina, CEMAS President.

  • 09:45 – 10:15 Plenary session: food loss and waste in the european framework

    • Cristina Lisetchi, European Comission Policy Officer.
      • EU targets, legislation, FLW Hub, mention to funding programmes.
    • Antonio García, European Green Capital 2024 director in Valencia.

      • Food as a pillar for EGC 2024.
    • Valeria de Laurentiis, European Comission JRC Food Waste Project Officer.

  • 10:15 – 12:15 Plenary session: City experiences

    Exemplary cities present their food loss and waste policies. (15 min presentation + 5 min questions per city)

    • Isabella Ligia, Head of Strategic Planning. Cagliari
    • Natalia Boitot, International Projects Manager. Warsaw
    • Teresa Materia, Head of Food Poverty Office. Milan
    • Arash Derambarsh, Deputy Mayor. Courbevoie
    • Christina Linnerhag, Head of Unit Meals. Gothenburg

    Once finished, Liliana Annovazzi-Jakab, chief officer for Economic Affairs at UN, will present the new NET app.

  • 12:15 – 13:15 Light lunch

  • 13:15 – 16:30 Workshops

    The evening sessions will allow participants to contribute their views and experience with the mediation of facilitators and rapporteurs in parallel workshops.

    The main objective of this workshop will be to look at the best strategies and ways to fight food loss and waste, but also to discuss the challenges and barriers that exist at city level and explore ways to build the capacity of cities. For this objective there will be 3 workshops tackling food loss and waste from different approaches.

    Participants will be divided into 3 different groups, for sessions of 1 hour. Each group will be at each workshop for 1 hour, after which they will move on to the next one, so everyone will attend every workshop.

    A summary of the main points of each workshop will be presented in plenary.

    • WORKSHOP 1: Addressing consumer food waste. What can different stakeholders do?
      Moderated by: Francesco Cagnola, Junior Project Officer, MUFPP.
    • WORKSHOP 2: How to foster multi stakeholder collaboration?
      Moderated by: Kader Makhlouf, Special Adviser to the UCLG World Secretariat, UCLG.
    • WORKSHOP 3: Managing & Valorising Food loss and waste (measurement and re-use)
      Moderated by: Chiara Roticiani, Project Officer, EUROCITIES.

    Cities that will participate on the workshops:

    • BÉRGAMO: Nadia Tonoli, Euorpean projects manager.
    • VENICE: Federico De Rossi, Expert in programming and development of welfare systems service.
    • DUBLIN: Feidhlim O’shea, Climate action officer.
    • OSLO: Lars Magnus, Adviser working on food waste issues with the agency for improvement and development.
    • HALANDRI: Nasia Barka, Chemical engineer – food loss and waste prevention unit.
    • BARCELONA: Raquel Díaz, Espigoladors director.
    • VALENCIA:
      • Redona project
      • ToNoWaste project
      • MagNuS project
    • CAGLIARI: Isabella Ligia, Head of strategic planning.
    • WARSAW: Natalia Boitot, International projects manager.
    • MILAN: Teresa Materia, Head of food poverty office.
    • COURBEVOIE, Arash Derambarsh, Deputy Mayor.
    • GOTHENBURG, Christina Linnerhag, Head of Unit meals.

  • 16:30 – 17:00 Coffee break

  • 17:00 – 17:30 Workshop conclusions

    Presentation of the main conclusions of the workshops in plenary session.

  • 17:30 – 17:45 Q&A

  • 17:45 – 18:00 Closing and acknowledgements

Morning. Plenary sessions

Evening. Conclusions & Closure

Posters with the initiatives of some of the cities attending the event

If you have any questions please contact us at .