Coventry University leads international effort to create more community kitchens across Europe

It is not just about food. These grassroots initiatives understand the complex needs that exist in their communities. They care and repair for a range of forms of oppression and exclusion that impacts upon a diverse range of social groups and aim to address these issues around the kitchen table.

There is very real care for both people and the environment and a desire to transform the food system towards equity, justice and sustainability, by creating the needed neighbourhood infrastructures that can support this.

Some kitchen-farmer coalitions are working to develop economic models, menus and logistics that can enable a steady supply of food throughout the year, while paying the farmers fairly. Others are training people to become cooks or professional growers, which shows it is not just about feeding people but rather about addressing some of the root causes of why people need help with food in the first place, such as poverty and exclusion from the labour market.

People may have been discriminated against because of their race, neurodiversity, class or sexual orientation and been unable to remain in the formal education system due to this, so the kitchens can create a caring environment where learning takes a variety of forms and is more adapted to different needs.

Through facilitated hands-on and collaborative activities with artists, medical herbalists, chefs or somatic therapists - on farms, in kitchens and community gardens - these landed kitchens are breeding grounds for the type of people-centred social infrastructures and institutions that we need in a context in which food poverty is growing and conventional food systems are becoming increasingly unsustainable.

We want to harness the amazing work these landed community kitchens do and strengthen these environments by fostering more learning across these international examples.

Dr Chiara Tornaghi from Coventry University’s Research Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience

We’re proud to be working with Coventry University on ROOTED, a project that puts our city at the centre of an international conversation about how communities can feed themselves well, fairly and sustainably.

Community kitchens do so much more than put food on the table. They bring people together, help them learn new skills and build their confidence, and can open the door to training and work.

At the same time, by linking kitchens with local growers, they support a food system that is better for our environment and more resilient to rising prices and a changing climate. They also give communities space to grow fresh, seasonal food, building on our new Coventry Grows initiative.

By learning from what works in cities across Europe, we can help these grassroots projects grow and make sure more Coventry residents benefit from them.

Councillor Lynnette Kelly, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change at Coventry City Council