5-6 Feb 2015: Athens partner meeting + social entrepreneurship workshop

From a city with 0% food self-sufficiency ratio to introducing food policy as key priority in the political agenda, Athens has come a long way, announced the URBACT Secretariat in its news (read article). Now European partner cities will get a chance to see for themselves as well as discuss food & the social economy.

On Thursday  5-  Friday 6 February 2015 , Athens will host  final partner meeting, prior to the final project conference to be held in Bristol on Monday 16 -Tuesday 17 March.

The purpose of the event in Athens is:

  1. to function as a preparation/ test-drive for URBACT SusFood Bristol final event, i.e. present and work on our pre-finalized action plans, handbook and lessons learned, so as to complement the two events and avoid overlaps. At this stage we may find useful to elaborate on funding schemes which is something we have not touched upon until now in previous transnational meetings.
  2. to get acquainted with Athens food system and sustainable food initiatives and
  3. to offer the opportunity for Athens’ sustainable food actors and municipal officials to get to know better partner cities sustainable food policies and initiatives.
  4. to combine sustainable food systems with social entrepreneurship and participatory politics

Partners are invited to

  • arrive Wednesday 4/2  and join optional informal dinner
  • stay for a 1,5-day Sustainable Food in Urban communities project meeting with discussions and sight visits

Thursday 5/2

    • morning session joined by mayor and local elected officials with focus on participatory politics & partner LAP presentations
      • Welcome by the Mayor of Athens Mr. Yorgos KAMINIS [full text]
      • Welcome by Lead Partner
      •  “Cities role in agrifood policy, the UN FAO experience”, Mr. George Polenakis, UN FAO & IFAD consultant, member of ADDMA BoD.
      • “EU food policy and urban centers ” Ms Ioanna Theodosiou, local food systems expert
      • “Resilient cities, participatory politics & sustainable food systems in Athens”, Mrs Lenio Myrivili, elected official responsible for Urban Sustainability
    • lunch site visit to Athens central food market & Hellenic Gastronomic Museum
    • afternoon disucussion on funding opportunies for LAP actions (at Gastronomy museum
    • evening celebration of collective cooking with local chef: the typical recipes prepared by 8 parnter cities   from home to share a tastecooking-cards2

 Friday 6/2

    •  morning site visit (tbc) with on-site
      presentation of Urbact projects “Gastronomic cities” &”Markets” by the participating cities in Greece (Korydallos, Attiki prefecture)
      & discussion on key lessons learnt, final delivrables & next steps
  • NEW!!! stay on for an optional additional Friday afternoon workshop on  Food & Social Economy hosted by the Athens’ “Social Entrepreneurship” program
    cities are encouraged to contribute by sharing information on local projects

A list of hotels will be provided by the Athens partner: typical rates in Plaka are 85€/night but it is possible to find reasonable accomodation at prices as low as 51€.