Imagine a digital map and a set of tools that help cities organize food sharing like a professional logistics network. It helps people find where food is being shared, calculates the actual value and cost of these activities, and provides a guidebook for laws. It's basically a GPS and a calculator for community-led food systems to help them grow without crashing.
Community food sharing lacks a standardized way to measure economic impact and navigate complex legal regulations. This prevents these initiatives from scaling and attracting the necessary investment to become resilient.
The Food Sharing Compass, a digital platform featuring a database of 100+ locations, a cost/benefit calculator, a governance guidebook, and a citizen engagement library.
If you are a city council dealing with food waste and urban hunger — this project developed a Menu of Good Governance that provides policy options to facilitate sustainable food sharing. This helps you create regulations that support local food economies instead of just commercial models.
If you are a food distributor dealing with inefficient surplus management — this project developed a Food Sharing Calculator that identifies the costs, benefits, and impacts of food sharing. You can use this to quantify the actual value created by diverting waste to community networks.
If you are a tech company dealing with low user engagement in community apps — this project developed a Library of Citizen Engagement prototype. You can use these validated methods to increase and maintain inclusive participation in food-related digital platforms.
Based on available project data, the Food Sharing Compass is described as an open access platform, suggesting it will be available without a direct purchase price.
The project aims for significant scale by mapping and monitoring food sharing landscapes across more than 100 urban and peri-urban areas in EU Member States and Associated Countries.
Based on available project data, the platform is intended to be open access, though specific licensing for the individual prototypes is not detailed.
The project provides a 'Menu of Good Governance' tool designed to help actors navigate governance architectures and ensure appropriate policies and regulations for food sharing.
The project period runs from 2023-01-01 to 2026-12-31, indicating that final validated tools will be ready by the end of 2026.
The consortium is heavily weighted toward non-commercial actors, with 13 'Other' organizations and 5 universities, while only 1 industry partner and 2 SMEs are involved. This 5% industry ratio suggests the project is driven by social innovation and academic research rather than immediate commercial productization, focusing on public-sector impact and community-led growth.
Contact the College of the Holy & Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin
Request a deep dive into the Food Sharing Calculator's methodology for your sustainability reporting.
