Young Future Food Movement- 1st Year Recap
聽What have we been up to over the last months?
In May 2024 the Young Future Food Movememt (YFFM) was established by Future Food Utrecht (FFU), part of Pathways to Sustainability of the UU. In November the first YFFM board was established with Lena Radt (chair), Josh Jacobs (co-chair), Christina van Beek, and Nathan Oenardi (until January). In January Paula Korn joined the board as well.
We started by formulating our vision and mission as a youth movement with very valuable help from Maarten Klop in some sessions at Grounded. Inherently, our task is to increase the sustainability of the food system on campus which is of course a very broad challenge.Next to this, we noticed a connected web of problems. There is a lack of student community and a weak connection to nature and the food system. This is especially true at the Science Park. We felt it was crucial to include this in our 'Master Plan' . Only then can we create change on a systematic and regional level. We aligned ourselves with 3 holistic goals:
- Establish a circular, local, accessible, ecologically aligned food system on campus.
- Encourage and empower students to self-organize and carry out projects to fulfill unmet needs, strengthen community bonds, and promote ecological rehabilitation.
- Grow a movement which ripples beyond the institution, engaging broader community stakeholders and contributing to paradigm shifts in food, academic, and personal spheres.
To start and work towards these goals we set up biweekly (and some spontaneous) meetings, monthly events, and 3 main projects: the inside-out education program, a campus composting system, and a community kitchen
The meetings were, of course, aimed at organising our events, developing our projects, keeping tabs on each other, and having fun together. The events aimed to get more people involved in the YFFM and build community around our movement. There was often also an educational aspect, from composting to working in a kitchen. For the campus composting project we organised a pilot in the Plaza building on campus with 25 students who collected their organic waste which we brought to the STORM (student association of Global Sustainability Science) garden where it was composted. This was a very meaningful pilot where the participants finally got a chance to help towards a living on a campus more aligned with their values of community and sustainability. We have not yet set up the full inside-out education program but have organised an asparagus excursion and a holacracy guest workshop. For the community kitchen we got inspiration and practical information from De Nieuwe Mensa (a student-run food stall at the 木瓜福利影视 of Amsterdam). We are currently securing a food stall at the Educatorium canteen where we aim to start serving hot, filling, affordable, plant-based, and local food beginning in October.
Throughout the year we met and collaborated with many inspiring (student) organisations and researchers such as Grounded, Plant-Based Universities, the UU Green Office, Vidius, and Basecamp. We harnessed each other's efforts to organise events together and partner up on for example the community kitchen project. Through this we started creating a lively and inspiring network of young actors who want to, and already significantly are, contributing to a healthy food system and community on and around Utrecht Science Park.
Next academic year, we will repeat our composting pilot on a slightly bigger scale and use this organisational experience and feedback to scale up even more. We will continue organising excursions and guest workshops and lectures while, together with FFU, finding a way to create an interdisciplinary educational program which students can receive credits for. Our community kitchen will be up and running for the majority of the year, serving nutritious and ecologically sound meals, and acting as a physical manifestation of the YFFM. We hope to grow our community to keep our momentum going and be able to achieve more change towards a connected and healthy food system on our campus.