The EUROCITIES working group on food is meeting in Birmingham this week (8/2/17). The meeting will consist of a series of events over three days. The working group aims to become a “creative hub” for sharing information, ideas, best practices as well as experimenting with innovative solutions related to the urban food agenda. Read more about the EUROCITIES working group on food here.

The meeting will start on Wednesday evening, 8 February, with a networking event at University of Birmingham, which will be attended by EUROCITIES participants, researchers, policy makers, food entrepreneurs, public health professionals and others who have an interest in diet related disease prevention.

The second day (Thursday 9 February) is scheduled at the Library of Birmingham from 8:45-16:00. There will be a focus group meeting “Food in Cities”, where innovative aspects of urban food strategies, new governance and innovative public procurement will be discussed. The meeting is part of the research conducted by EUROCITIES, city of Milan and University of Cardiff on behalf of the European Commission for the project “Food in Cities”. The members will discuss the 2017 objectives and lobby priorities of the working group towards the European Union. Each city represented will present their ambition for this working group and have the opportunity to present their recent projects or best practice. This will be followed by a meeting at the City Kitchen, which feeds over 70,000 children within a 90 minute window every school day. They buy around £12m worth of food every year. The second day will be concluded by a reception at Harborne Food School, which was set up in March 2014 in order to tackle food related public health and environmental issues faced by the local community and support the public to make healthier, more sustainable food choices.

The last day of the meeting, on Friday 10 February, will consist of a Birmingham City Centre Food Tour. This will comprise market visits as well as a visit to China town and the Great Western Arcade.