Stories of solidarity with food waste during COVID-19

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Project description

Food relations (through production, distribution, circulation, exchange and waste) represent the embodiment of our relation to the environment. This project aimed at making visible, conceptually and methodologically, the constellations of meanings derived from practices of solidarity associated to relations of food waste exchange taking place in the food markets of Leiden and The Hague. The team of researchers explored the meanings of solidarity associated to practices of transforming food waste, and therefore the role markets play, not only as infrastructures of exchange, but also potentially care and solidarity. This was particularly relevant in the context of the social distance regulations that shaped urban relations during the pandemic. The aim of the project was to generate conceptual, methodological, and societal relevant contributions to current debates about why and how local responses related to food waste and food distribution are important in times of global (health) crisis. By actively engaging with storytelling, visual and participatory action research methodologies, the project elucidated how these experiences contribute to alternative and sustainable narratives of solidarity in the city in times of crisis. The project ended with an exhibition at the Atrium of The Hague Municipality entitled “Food Waste Transformers. Infrastructures of solidarity in Leiden and The Hague” and the publication of an article in the open access journal Frontiers of Sustainability, titled “Unsettling the frontiers of food waste in the Netherlands: Infrastructural stories of food waste transformation in The Hague”.

Click here to go to the website of the exhibition “Food Waste Transformers. Infrastructures of solidarity in Leiden and The Hague”.

Click here to go to the website of the Frontiers of Sustainability article “Unsettling the frontiers of food waste in the Netherlands: Infrastructural stories of food waste transformation in The Hague”.