CoopsForFood

Funding: Österreichischer Klima- und Energiefonds
Amount of Funding: € 106.513 (RCE: € 56.898)
Duration: 02/2021 - 07/2023
Partners: IFZ Graz, Raiffeisenverband Steiermark, Sozialmedizinisches Zentrum SMZ Liebenau, Verein Illusions (Stadtteilzentrum Triesterviertel), Landwirtschaftskammer Steiermark, Petra Herout
Contact: Dr. Andreas Exner

Description:
CoopsForFood investigates how alternative food networks, as an example of Diverse Economies of Sustainable Food, can be made economically and socially more accessible with the help of cooperative structures and thus become a new alternative mainstream. To this end, the project focuses on three neighborhoods in Graz with insufficient local supply and a high proportion of marginalized people: the Triesterviertel, the Jakominiviertel and Grünanger. In the sense of activating and participatory research within an approach oriented towards everyday life, CoopsForFood initiates, organizes and investigates three activities: (1) a founding impulse for a cooperatively structured Community Supported Agriculture CSA 2.0 in a multi-stakeholder format, (2) a founding impulse for a community support agency for inclusive food sharing, (3) a participatory discourse intervention based on food stories that encourage creative and sustainable appropriation of everyday food.
The project has the following outcomes: (1) a manual for the foundation of a CSA 2.0, (2) a concept for the development of a community support center for inclusive food sharing, (3) a long-term effective discourse intervention in Graz, (4) a concrete working context for cooperative and locally anchored, socially inclusive spaces of transition and for a new culture of social innovation.