Project
Welcome to the Food For Change project! It is a KA2-2022 Erasmus + co-funded project.
After seeing the need of young people to reconnect after the COVID-19 pandemic we decided, to bring a project on the way that will help them find a space for that exact purpose. By identifying best practices and implementing an innovative food-based method we attempt to create intercultural dialogue spaces that engage youth, create active citizenship and foster social inclusion of disadvantaged youth post-pandemic. These spaces, that we call Dialogue Dinners, provide them with personal, social and professional competencies that will benefit their physical and mental wellbeing.
- We aim to provide opportunities for young people to interact and share their thoughts on personal, societal, and political topics in safe spaces;
- By introducing healthy organic and seasonal food recipes along with interesting and engaging conversation recipes, we expect that this project will have a positive impact on the participating youth ́s mental and physical wellbeing;
- We expect that the intercultural dialogue on personal, societal and political topics this project aims to foster will empower the youth ́s sense of initiative and active citizenship in their local communities and across countries in Europe;
- We aim to combat discrimination and intolerance among youth, as well fostering social inclusion for marginalized youngsters through innovative food-based methods and intercultural dialogue.
This project was implemented from September 2022 to August 2024. For more information on the outcomes of the Food For Change project, visit our “Results” section.
Target groups
Youth with diverse backgrounds
In order to expand youth’s world views we intend to bring youth with different backgrounds in terms of gender, age and race together to foster intercultural dialogue.
We expect that the diversity among the youth along with the safe space created by the facilitators can bring forward different voices and opinions on the personal, societal and political topics discussed.
Thus, we hope that the dinners can enhance tolerance and solidarity among the participants.
Youth at risk of social exclusion
In this project we want to reach youth at risk of social exclusion due to discrimination, mental health issues or disabilities.
We expect that this group might have a difficult time seeking out social events, expressing themselves verbally and engaging in meaningful conversations with peers.
Therefore, we offer in this project a facilitated and safe environment for engaging in interesting discussions with peers on relevant and various topics with our recipes for conversation.
Youth facilitators
Our dialogue dinners will be facilitated by youth selected by each partner organization.
In order to ensure they are equipped with the necessary facilitation skills, knowledge on food relations and that they are able to create a safe and culturally sensitive space they will participate in a three-day training.
Youth workers and professionals
Furthermore, we want to target youth workers and professionals with the aim of inspiring them to use our digital open educational resources to implement dialogue dinners in educational institutions, public schools, boarding schools or organizations working with youth on their own initiative.
We hope that the conversations on topics that transcend national borders can promote active citizenship of the youth.
Results
Recipes for Conversation eBook
The eBook, one of the project’s main outcomes, will be a compilation of tasty recipes, societal and political conversation topics, best practices and topic-based research. It will give you the perfect background knowledge and basis for implementing your own “Dialogue Dinners” for youth, supporting them in post-COVID times. The recipes in the book, both for meals and conversations, have been tested and approved by the participants who took part in the local “Dialogue Dinners”. The aim of this eBook and the work surrounding it is to:
- Develop a framework of the specific contexts and needs of youth in each country through desk research and focus groups with youth conducted by each organization.
- Create and test Recipes for Conversation in each country that foster dialogue around the topics that youth have vocalized and are based on the aforementioned research.
- Address the need for innovative and non-traditional methods of education for youth and community building, in post-pandemic times.
- Develop a foundational understanding of the potential impact of food methods in facilitating intercultural dialogue and social inclusion within the field of youth.
Food For Change
Trainer’s Guide
The objectives of this work package form a core contribution to the general objectives of the project: supporting the active citizenship of young people, improving youth’s mental and physical wellbeing, fostering social inclusion of marginalized youth, combatting discrimination and intolerance amongst youth, and quality development and innovation in youth work by utilizing food-sharing methods.
Food for Change Training has three overall objectives:
- Providing youth workers in each partner organization with the skills needed to implement Food for Change Trainings the “Dialogue Dinners”
- Engaging and teaching youth skills of intercultural dialogue and storytelling, boosting their capacity for social inclusion, and setting them on the path towards becoming active, global citizens.
- Creating the Food for Change Trainer Guide that will aid youth workers, educators and NGOs in building their capacities to replicate Dialogue Dinners.
The main outcome of this work package is the “Trainer’s Guide” which summarizes all the necessary information for you. It is the perfect manual to use to prepare and facilitate your own “Dialogue Dinners” in your local community.
Food for Change Online Platform
This website functions as the “Food for Change Online Platform” It is a hub where you can access all of the project outcomes. It also functions as a space where you can find useful and interactive materials about food, community building and dialogue. Soon we will introduce a forum that you can sign up to to discuss related topics, ideas, recipes and to tell us about your own experience using food as a method to create dialogue and support marginalized youth. We created this platform to:
- Support active citizenship of young people
- Improve youth’s mental health and physical wellbeing
- Foster social inclusion of marginalized youth
- Combat discrimination and intolerance amongst youth
- Add quality development and innovation in youth work by utilizing food-sharing methods
Best Practices
The Best Practices are a collection of other food-related projects and practices that have inspired and guided the Food For Change project. They created the basis for our choices during the project and showed the plentiful possibilities of using food to benefit communities. Download the document here and see how other youth and community-focused organisations used food as a means of sharing and expression.
Country Reports
The Country Reports consist of the results of Empathy Interviews and Desk research. The empathy interviews, inspired by design thinking, were used to explore young people’s experiences, concerns and needs. The desk research drew on information from existing sources such as textbooks, articles and government reports. By combining these two methods, we were able to get a better picture of the contexts in which the project is being implemented.
Observation Report
The Observation Report consists of the observations noted by the facilitators during and after the Dialogue Dinners. The partner consortium generally evaluated the success of the dinners in regards of implementation, sustainability and smooth participation.
Galleries
Newsletters
1st Newsletter
2nd Newsletter
3rd Newsletter
4th Newsletter
Partners
Crossing Borders
Denmark (Copenhagen)
Kainotomia & SIA EE
Greece (Larisa)
Euro-Net
Italy (Potenza)
Novo Mundo Azul
Portugal (Sobreda)
AY Institute
Lithuania (Kaunas)
Comparative Research Network EV
German (Berlin)