In the context of the Summer&Winter Schools held by Food Wave Project in Milan, some of the participants have been involved in a Meeting in Turin on 7th – 8th October 2023. The event saw the participation of 11 of them.
The common thread of the weekend was the theme of food as a tool for cultural and intercultural dialogue, the fight against food waste and urban horticulture as opportunity of social inclusion.
Most of the places visited for the meals moments were not only restaurant: they were spaces that included lots of project, association and cultural activities. These spaces offer to the community where they are located the possibility and opportunity to meeting, exchange, community-activation and awareness around cultural and sustainable topics.
On Saturday 7th October, the weekend started with a lunch in the spaces of Comala Community Hub. Here the Food Wavers could meet, talk about their “slogan” on food sustainability, how and if they are changed since they attended the Summer&Winter Schools. During the lunch, some of the representatives of the spaces explained what are Comala Community Hub and its projects: Eufemia Association and the project Food Pride. The meeting was enriching because some of these projects interlace with those of some associations which participants belong to.
In the afternoon, the group joined one of the Intercultural Urban Routes of the project Migrantour Torino, organized by Viaggi solidali. The route was in the area of Porta Palazzo, which was colored everyday by an intercultural market. The route was titled “Around the world in a square: Porta Palazzo”. Participants could discover one of the liveliest places of cultural exchange of the City, through the story of the food of the different cultures that compose this market like a mosaic.
In the evening, the group of Food Wavers visited the spaces of Beeozanam, which was a house of lot of association and activities. One representative of Fonderie Ozanam explained these activities, such as the job placement projects, the spaces for exhibitions, cultural activities and the urban rooftop gardens.
During the evening, the group had the pleasure to meet Maria Bottiglieri of International Cooperation and Peace area of City of Turin. She explained how the Municipality of Turin had established a continuous dialogue with the young associations involved in Food Wave project.
On Sunday 8th October the participants visited the Urban Gardens in the district of Barriera di Milano, which represent an opportunity for social inclusion in an area of marginality and fragility.
The visit started in Urban Garden “Il Boschetto” in the context of the project “Agrobarriera” managed by RE.TE. ONG. The morning continued with the visit of an urban rooftop garden on a supermarket and the complex story of its management and building.fiescaverd.com
Then the group walked up to the spaces of “Associazione culturale variante Bunker”, where MAIS. ONG and Fiesca Verd guided the group to discover the vegetable garden and educational chicken coop. Fiesca Verd is one of the association that met during its life the Food Wave project and created some of its activities thanks to Food Wave’s subgrants.
Food Wavers with all the associations they met during the morning stopped in the spaces of “Associazione culturale variante Bunker” to have lunch, continue the exchange and close together the weekend. The lunch was managed by Jigeeny , a project of Renken onlus , which cooked for them African meals and culinary specialties.
During the lunch, tasting African food, the Food Wavers could listened to the Restitution of the North/South Exchange, held from the 17th to the 19th of July 2023 in Dakar (Senegal) in occasion of the 5th MUFPP Regional Forum in Africa in collaboration with the Food Wave project.
At the end of the weekend, food was again the key to discover projects, cultures and places!
