Rotterdam is home to many inspiring initiatives around gardens, kitchens, and community-based practices. Passionate food workers lead them and believe in alternative food systems and new ways of sharing, caring, and living together. But how can these local initiatives connect more deeply and strengthen one another in order to cultivate a truly regenerative urban foodscape for the city?

On September 25^th, our CONVIVIUM team members Pia Canales (Nieuwe Instituut), Justyna Jakubiec (Utrecht University) and Kevin Lai (Utrecht University) hosted the Regenerative Urban Foodscapes workshop at Rotterdam’s Mensa Mensa, as part of the After Summer School organised by Nieuwe Instituut.

This hands-on workshop was a follow-up to last year’s class of the same name (link). This year’s class continued exploring how local food initiatives can connect, collaborate, and strengthen each other to build a regenerative urban foodscape. While the previous class focused on identifying mutual forms of support, this year we aimed to test and refine collaboration and support techniques, learn together, share resources, and grow. Pia, Justyna and Kevin shared their ongoing work on a “Workbook for Change” that occupies the Open Garden and the Open Kitchen solutions these months: a collection of exercises inspired by our research, for those who wish to transform their community food practices and foodscapes on convivial principles.

We were happy to present the first version of the workbook, along with the working exercises, to an interdisciplinary group of food initiative workers, academics, researchers, philosophers, and volunteers, and to explore how we could continue developing it.

We thank everyone who joined the workshop and shared their thoughts; they were crucial to creating the workbook, which will be part of the final exhibition at the Nieuwe Instituut next year. More will follow!