On 18-23 March 2024, the IIIEE research team Yuliya Voytenko Palgan, Vera Sadovska, Oksana Mont and Andrius Plepys participated in the first mobile research lab on food sharing in Barcelona as part of the EU project CULTIVATE.

The mobile research lab meant an intense week with 20+ study visits and interviews with volunteers and initiatives engaged in growing food together, cooking and eating food together, and redistributing surplus food, as well as other actors involved in food sharing and sustainable food systems in Barcelona and its surroundings. The researchers visited urban gardens, community kitchens, food cooperative shops, social supermarkets, and food banks. They also engaged in sense making experiences such as gleaning of unharvested fava beans on the fields in Prat de Llobregat, Barcelona, delivering meals prepared by volunteers in a community kitchen and collecting unsold food from the neighbourhood stores for further redistribution to people in need, tasting meals in community kitchens, and, of course, sharing food with colleagues and friends. 

On many visits, the researchers were accompanied by representatives from the Barcelona Metropolitan Strategic Plan (PEMB), food sharing initiatives Espigoladors and Food Cloud, and ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability, all of whom are partners in the CULTIVATE project. This created a fruitful space for reflection, discussion, and exchange within the transdisciplinary team to better understand the challenges, costs, risks, perceived value, benefits, drivers and success factors to establish and maintain food sharing initiatives in Barcelona.

Read more about the CULTIVATE project here.