The first Summer School of the FOSTER EU project took place in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The three-day science meeting of the five initiatives from Spain, Holland, Serbia and Hungary, also called "CDI" - Change Driven Initiatives was organized and accompanied by the science partners of the Universities of Oxford, Wageningen, Amsterdam and Hohenheim as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI Karlsruhe.

An important point of the joint exchange was the inventory and analysis of the participants / stakeholders in the respective local-regional food system: Who along the local food chain has which influences on the "food system". In addition to cultivation, marketing and consumption habits, factors such as legislation, environmental impacts or access to regionally and sustainably produced food "for all" play an important role. The Food System Research of the project partners provides a comprehensive toolkit for the analysis, discussion and further development of the local food system.

The discussions and results of the meeting will be compiled by the science partners and made available to the project partners for further development of their nutrition strategies in the field. The next FOSTER summer school is scheduled to take place in June-July 2024. Interested experts in the environment of the Food Policy Council StadtRegion Stuttgart can also participate.

Foto: (r to l) The core team of the „ERS“ (Food Polica Council Stuttgart) Jana Gutzat, Uli Ostarhild and the science team FOSTER of the University of Hoheneheim: Anna Struth, Nuray Duman und Julia Thompson during the excursion to the project organic farm "kleene Aare" near Wageningen / NL.