We are excited to announce a major milestone for Kolding: the establishment of our very own Food Council! This makes Kolding one of the first cities in Denmark to create such a council.
This is the result of nearly 18 months of dedicated work, during which we have been steadily ‘planting seeds’ for the establishment of a Food Council. We’ve laid the groundwork to promote the importance of such a council: by signing the MUFPP and creating an organizational structure that can effectively support the council in addressing the needs of the community. The very first thing we did was to establish an internal Food Steering Committee, which is a cross-organizational board of directors and managers from different administrations related to food issues. In collaboration with this committee, we created the commission description for the Food Council and sent it off for approval to the Economic and Strategic Committee and the City Council.
As we are still on a steep learning curve in terms of ”Food System Transformation Management”, we have prioritized starting out with a rather narrow Food Council of ‘hand picked’ experts from across the Food Sector of Kolding. The Food Council will function as an advisory board for the City Council, providing recommendations and guidance. The council will also function as a forum for discussing local and national food challenges bringing together key stakeholders from across the community, including politicians, citizens, institutions, NGOs, and other food system actors. By serving as a coordinating unit, the Food Council will help to facilitate effective communication and collaboration amongst these groups.
We have been able to bring together a highly diverse and representative group of Food System actors, covering all stages of the value chain. This representation ensures that the council is informed by a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by each stakeholder group. Our Food Council is composed of 16 members including representatives from various stages of the food supply chain, as well as officials:
Production
- The local farming organization and organic farming
- Food production company
- Food Innovation House
Distribution
- Super Market
- Restaurant
- Hotel
Consumption
- Self-sufficient citizen
- Education (School educating Chefs)
Waste Management
- Waste Company (Biowaste à Biogas)
- Food Waste NGO
Governance
- 2 x City Council Members
- Health Committee (Chairman of the Food Council)
- Environment, Climate & Nature Committee)
- Fusilli Project Manager
- 4 x Civil Service
- Director of Health Administration
- Director of City Development Administration
- Sustainability Secretariat Manager
We kicked off the Food Council on the 7th of March 2023 and one of the first tasks we will focus on is to develop the very first Food Strategy for Kolding. Together with SDU, we have developed a design process for the strategy development which involves the Food Council members, citizens, and external experts. We are very excited about having a Food Council on board to help ignite the transformation and are looking positively to the future to see where this will take us.
Author: Helle Fuglsang Vilsbøll, Kolding FUSILLI Project Manager
Photos: Kolding Living Lab