Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

This is the largest European tender won by the Municipality of Milan as leader

Milan, May 31 2020 – Eleven cities, three universities and five important partners of the food system involved and coordinated by the Municipality of Milan were awarded 12 million euros to carry out the 'Food Trails' project, winner among 20 different proposals of the largest European tender – Horizon 2020 – won by the Municipality of Milan as leader.

Providing all citizens with affordable, safe and nutritious food and creating healthier and more sustainable regional food systems through integrated urban food policies are the primary objectives of 'Food Trails', which will be made up of several pilot projects, for which it will now be launched co-planning and which will be implemented starting from October 2020 (until September 2023).

The Municipality of Milan, in particular, will be allocated 1 million 640 thousand euros, of which 450 thousand euros dedicated to Milan Catering for the implementation of a pilot action in the canteens of the city's schools.

“We are proud of a result – comments the Deputy Mayor with responsibility for Food Policy Anna Scavuzzo – which fits into a framework of successes and which rewards great team work inside and outside the Municipality: a serious and innovative project wins, which brings a significant economic contribution to start new projects and an international recognition that rewards years of concrete and incessant work on Food Policy issues. The experience gained in recent years on food policies is recognized in Milan: the legacy of Expo2015 is also the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, which today can count on the participation and exchange of good practices for over 200 cities around the world, which are committed to promoting sustainable urban food systems. And let's move forward."

Other Milanese actors involved are Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Politecnico di Milano, while the cities participating in the partnership are Copenhagen, Warsaw, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Bergamo, Funchal, Thessaloniki, Groningen, Grenoble, Sofia and Tirana. Also involved are Eurocities, the Brussels offices of Slow Food International, the Norwegian EAT Forum and the Universities of Cardiff, Wageningen and Roskilde.

The project will also be followed by 21 other cities around the world ("fellows cities", without budget): Toronto, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Lima, La Paz, Mérida, Rio de Janeiro, Guangzhou, Seoul, Cape Town, Melbourne , New Haven, Tel Aviv, Baltimore, Washington DC, Mezitli, Kazan, Praia, Quelimane, Curitiba, Guadalajara.

'Food Trails' assumes that in a globalized food system of social, environmental and economic vulnerabilities and inequalities, cities are the key actors to re-imagine, implement and engage in participatory food policy innovations. The general objective is therefore to provide the EU, city governments and all actors involved in change with concrete examples of actions that can be implemented, co-designed and verified, to support the development and consolidation of useful policies and practicable.

The participation of cities of different sizes, with different types of food governance and located in the most diverse geographical areas of Europe will allow 'Food Trails' to identify and test a wide range of strategies.

Finally, recently, another Food Policy project of the Municipality of Milan was chosen by the European Commission, winning funding of 7,5 million euros. This is "Food Wave-Empowering Urban Youth for Climate Action", which aims to raise awareness among young people on the issues of climate change.