LAUNCH OF GENERATION FOOD

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25 SEPTEMBER 2019    

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The very beginning of Generation Food took place on Wednesday, September 29, 2019. We started a collaboration between the province of Flemish Brabant, Boerenbond, PROEF, EIT Food, KU Leuven, UCLL, KBC, the City of Leuven and Rikolto. The partners - all active within the agricultural and food sector - wanted to bundle their expertise and network in this way to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship. Read more about how the event went!

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During the kick-off event, Joris Lohman ( Food Hub, NL) came to speak in front of a packed hall about the importance of co-creation and collaboration. Two elements that are still strongly interwoven in Generation Food and the methodology of our innovation processes. The project partners signed a project charter, which describes the guiding principles for the project.

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“Thanks to this broad collaboration, we make use of each other's strengths. Today's food and agricultural challenges are not easy to solve, only through cooperation can we achieve our ambitions," said then project coordinator Thibault Geerardyn (Rikolto) at the time. “We mainly target people with ideas, students and (potential) entrepreneurs who want to roll up their sleeves. We want to include these people in innovation processes. Participants go through a process that goes from a vague idea to testing a detailed concept."

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“Through the provincial subsidy regulations for sustainable climate projects, the province of Flemish Brabant supports projects that help achieve our climate objectives,” said Bart Nevens, deputy for the environment. “This 2-year climate project will receive 68,000 euros. In this way, efforts are made to stimulate sustainable agriculture and consumption, with attention to short-chain initiatives and innovation that contribute to climate neutrality”.

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Generation Food originally arose from Leuven's local food strategy and fulfills one of the seven strategic objectives: stimulating innovation for sustainable agriculture and food. With bottom-up (social) innovative projects we want to make the food system in and around Leuven more sustainable and fairer. The role of a new (young) generation of starting entrepreneurs is crucial in this regard.