Amersfoort was host city for the second transnational meeting of the Urbact sustainable food project for urban communities from 23 th to 25th of April. During the kick-off meeting several key note speakers shared there expertise on urban and local food systems:

• Wageningen University researcher Jan Willem van der Schans inspired the partners with some interesting examples of urban agriculture in the Netherland;
• Peter Terwindt from Deli XL a nationwide food distributor, showed how ‘regional  for local’  produce can be effictive delivered be there Vers 24/7 concept in which farmers are able to present their produce on an online platform for restaurants, and Deli XL  is the connector between supply and demand;
• Maaike Liefkens from Vitam Catering presented the policy on sustainable catering and regional produce in the product range of the canteens and restaurants were they serve their lunches and dinners.

Also the EU partners had some very inspiratonal site visits to CSA ‘Het Derde Erf”, farm shop landwinkel ‘De Kopermolen’, community gardening project ‘Tuinpark Laakzijde’  and a visit to Plus Supermarket Amersfoort were the partners experienced the policy of the entrepeneur of this supermarket regarding  the inclusing of local produce in the regular product range and the corporation between the  specialized distributor Willem & Drees and local produce/farmers.

At  the workshop on the theme ‘Delivering’,  in which the Urbact partners will explore ways to distribute, share and procure local and peri-urban food for the city other important objectives like less carbon intensive delivery systems, enabling direct and new links between supply and demand several other topics regarding the “How” of short food circuits were discussed.  As a result of this workshop partners carried out a self assesment on the priorities and achievements regarding this theme for their own cities. These results will be the input for further evaluation and research during meetings of the project.

An inspirational meeting with the local support group members of Amersfoort and their activities in a 3 slides/3 minutes presentation was organized at the Bij Daphne a meeting point for locals in a new neigborhood of Amersfoort were food is grown, served and practical educated.

Finally at the last evening of this meeting Kees van Doorn from cooking studio Sans Jullienne cooked a diner with local ingrediënts and shared his enthousiasm about (local) food with us.