Food Poverty and Food Policies

The project proposes an innovative approach to combating food poverty, intersecting it with the solidarity economy and community welfare experiences. The project brings together different food actors including assistance recipients to test a different model of food distribution that ensures the quality and sustainability of the food distributed by providing fresh food produced locally. The project implements rights awareness-raising, cooking classes and empowerment activities. 

Food poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon caused by inadequate income but also by the unavailability of varied and healthy food and the lack of knowledge of correct eating lifestyles. In Itlay, increasing large sections of the population have reduced the quantity and quality of food they consume, mainly due to the economic crisis and austerity. Despite the scale of the phenomenon, a specific indicator of food insecurity is missing and the assistance models consist of interventions of the private social sector on a “needs-based” approach that cannot guarantee an effective medium and long-term response. Local food policies are a possible leverage for building sustainable and effective responses. However, only few local authorities such as the Municipality of Milan have adopted them.