Continuing on one of the many paths of sustainability, our latest addition is a new series of podcasts, where we look for current issues in need of solutions, with inspiring talkers.
Circular FoodShift Ep. 5 - Circular food systems in schools
Schools in the EU are struggling with the most common challenge - plate waste.
This brings major challenges to create resilient food value chains, and to ensure food security in the region. While policy tools and funding instruments already exist, there remain many gaps in knowledge, information, skills and awareness between cities, regions, policy coordinators, school kitchens and businesses.
However, schools can also be part of the answer to tackle some of the problems.
You may be wondering what can schools actually do to help in these food waste reduction efforts? In this episode, we will explore how schools can improve its impact on our planet as well as reduce costs on school budgets.
Talkers:
🔸 Ahmad ur Rehman Hafiz (https://www.cscp.org/team/ahmad-ur-rehman-hafiz/), Project Manager, CSCP, Germany
🔸 Dominik Stingl (https://de.linkedin.com/in/dominik-stingl), Chairman, Gut Einern e.V, Germany
🔸 Sami Kumpulainen (https://www.samijuhanikumpulainen.fi), Teacher at Kuopion klassillinen lukio, Finland
Host: Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro
The Circular FoodShift project is co-financed by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
5 Aug 2025
Circular FoodShift Ep.4 - The importance of school chefs
In the this episode, we’ll continue on the Farm to School conversation focusing on the importance of transnational and cross-sectoral collaboration models between regional stakeholders in the Baltic Sea region.
Talkers:
🔸Kaja Kesküla, Community engager & Project Manager, Development Centre of Võru County, Estonia
🔸Rita Ivanova, Project Manager, Latgale PlanningRegion, Latvia
🔸Alain Grenard, Head School Chef & Dietary Manager, Karlstad Municipality, Sweden
Host: Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro
The Circular FoodShift project is co-financed by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
5 Aug 2025
Circular FoodShift Ep.3 - Sustainable and circular school food
Farm to School programs play a vital role in reducing food waste in schools. By combining education, canteen strategies, and food recovery initiatives, these programs not only enhance student nutrition but also promote sustainability.
These initiatives also connect local farmers to school cooks, educate students about food waste and encourage mindful eating habits, ultimately aiming to decrease the amount of food thrown away.
In this episode, we’ll explore how Farm to School programs, can tackle food waste in school canteens, and increase organic food from local farmers in school food procurement.
Talkers:
🔸Kaja Kesküla, Community engager & Project Manager, Development Centre of Võru County, Estonia
🔸Rita Ivanova, Project Manager, Latgale Planning Region, Latvia
🔸Sven Tobreluts, Director, Association of Municipalities of Tartu County
🔸Alain Grenard, Head School Chef & Dietary Manager, Karlstad Municipality, Sweden
Host: Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro
The Circular FoodShift project is co-financed by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
5 Aug 2025
Circular FoodShift Ep.2 - Circular business models in gastronomy
One of the pleasures of urban life is the wide choice of restaurants available. Given its size and nature, the HoReCa industry is resource hungry and generates large volumes of waste, and with the rapid climate changes, increasing food prices, customers demand for more environmentally friendly food choices, this sector needs an experimental mindset, a willingness to ask questions and try new things.
What's on the table?
With insights from the Nordics and Baltics we get an understanding on how the three areas of hyperlocal, cooperation and commitment play their part in a Circular Business Model.
This Talk has focus on from soil to fork, a good practice from Sweden with Head Chef Frida Nilsson (https://www.facebook.com/FalafelAward/posts/the-jury-frida-nilsson-head-chef-at-mjsfrida-nilsson-is-born-and-raised-outside-/792603107833958/) and Culinary Farmer Saba Nazarian (https://www.theculinaryfarmer.co/). Steps the HoReCa industry can take to play their part in tackling climate change while getting more from less.
Host: Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro
The Circular FoodShift project is co-financed by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
5 Aug 2025
Circular FoodShift Ep.1 - Setting the table
Vision and commitment are essential for food waste prevention and reduction.
The local and regional governments have a key role to play in the transition to Territorial Food Systems. Long-term commitment, actions and policies are needed to implement circular food systems in the Baltic countries.
In this episode, we’ll learn more about the project - the background to the challenge, the role of stakeholders, developed tools and the progress made so far.
Talkers:
🔸Inga Belousa, Sustainability lead expert, Green Liberty, Latvia
🔸Ilkka Latomäki, Researcher & lecturer, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences, Finland.
Host: Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro
The Circular FoodShift project is co-financed by the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme.
18 Nov 2023
PROVOKE JOY! Ep.3 - The final story
SDG 0 - The foundation and ultimate goal of Agenda 2030.
The present food system faces major challenges in terms of sustainable development along social, economic and environmental dimensions.
But one thing that tends to be forgotten when dealing with the challenges that need strong and urgent collaboration - is to bring Joy to the table.
What could become of our society if we centred joy when designing our food systems?
How might experiences change if they were designed to provoke joy? How might policies and institutions be different if we aspired towards a joyful society?
Moderator
Angela McKee-Brown, Founder of Project Reflect (https://www.projectreflect.com/), US
Talkers
Ana Gerlin Hernandez Bonilla Måbeck, Creative Nutritionist in Health Innovation, Guatemala
Charlotte Dufour, Interventions Advisor, France
Benson Kamau, Entrepreneur passionate in Agriculture, Kenya
Matthew Kessler, Research and Communications officer at Table, Sweden
Read more here: https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-final-story/ (https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-final-story/)
17 Nov 2023
PROVOKE JOY! Ep.2 - The Narrative
Looking at the circle of colours which composes the SDG logo, we see that this “hole” in the middle can actually be the “whole” – the essence, the space we are all invited to fill with our creativity, our passion and compassion. It gives its wholeness to this Agenda 2030, which, beyond an agenda for sustainable development, should and will be an agenda for reconnection and regeneration…
And it starts in our public schools and educational institutes, prioritising food education.
Moderator
Cyrille Gaubert, Urban farming ecosystem initiator, Sweden
Talkers
Anu Seisto, Research Team Leader, Future customer research at VTT, Finland
Kathy Belpaeme, FoodSHIFT 2030 project coordinator and food policy officer, City of Ostend, Belgium
Katerina Riviou, Researcher/Senior Project Manager, R&D department of Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Greece
László Jaczenko, CEO, ClimateSmart Elephant, Hungary
Read more here: https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-narrative/ (https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-narrative/)
17 Nov 2023
PROVOKE JOY! Ep.1 - The development of meaning
This Talk will be focused on several SDGs food heroes, both from the Nordics and from all around the world, that are using this unwritten 18th Sustainable Development Goal in their everyday work to improve our food systems.
Why are we not putting more focus on SDG 0 in order to set us up for success moving forward and what can we learn from these frontrunners that are doing so?
Moderator
Dr Romas Malevicius, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Marketing at King’s Business School, King’s College London, UK
Talkers
Miglė Labeikytė, Project coordinator at Sustainable Gastro, Lithuania
Daniel Lövgren, Senior Lecturer at Uppsala University and researcher at Södertörn University
Emil Kiær Lund, Coordinator and consultant to the so-called “Food Schools”, City of Copenhagen, Denmark
Read more here: https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-development-of-meaning/ (https://sustainablegastro.com/events-calendar/provoke-joy-the-development-of-meaning/)
19 May 2023
Walk the School Food Talk Ep.1 - School food in the Baltic Sea Region
Various countries across the world have put school food and sustainability in their long term regional strategic plans. Essential involvement, collaboration and having a common goal from local and national authorities is key to advancing school food sustainability and to tackle the challenges that come with it.
In this first episode, we're addressing three questions:
Why are we talking about school food?
What are the thoughts on the SDGs?
How could school food programmes help the Baltic Sea Region advance its SDG commitments?
We have three fantastic drivers of change discussing this topic.
Urszula Ala-Karvia, doctoral researcher at University of Helsinki Ruralia Institute, the lead partner of InterregBSR project StratKIT+ (https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/stratkitplus/)
Ulrika Backlund, project manager for sustainable diets and communications lead for SchoolFood4Change (https://schoolfood4change.eu/), WWF Sweden
Jennifer Avci, founder of Sustainable Gastro and project development manager of the InterregBSR project BSR Food Coalition (https://interreg-baltic.eu/project/bsr-food-coalition/)
17 Oct 2022
New Baltic Cuisine Talks Ep.2 - Baltic cook books and marketing
Sustainable gastronomy means cuisine that takes into account where the ingredients are from, how the food is grown and how it gets to our markets and eventually to our plates.
Baltic food culture and heritage, the variation of traditional and regenerative farmers and diversity of regions all combined with sustainability, is so worth visiting and exploring, both for locals and international visitors.
Here the speakers will discuss and guide us on how to take the lead to foster and accelerate sustainable food tourism with focus on New Baltic Cuisine.
Speakers
- Zuza Zak, food storyteller and author of Amber and Rye: A Baltic food journey.
- Simon Bajada the author of Baltic: New and Old Recipes from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
- Dr Romas Malevicius, Lecturer in Marketing at King's College London. Key expertise - marketing, sustainability, and education for sustainability.
12 Oct 2022
New Baltic Cuisine Talks Ep.1 - Sustainable food tourism development
Sustainable gastronomy means cuisine that takes into account where the ingredients are from, how the food is grown and how it gets to our markets and eventually to our plates.
Baltic food culture and heritage, the variation of traditional and regenerative farmers and diversity of regions all combined with sustainability, is so worth visiting and exploring, both for locals and international visitors.
Here the speakers will discuss and guide us on how to take the lead to foster and accelerate sustainable food tourism with focus on New Baltic Cuisine.
Speakers
- Jonatan Leer, Head of Food and Tourism Research, University College Absalon, Denmark.
- Anna Drozdowska, A sustainable tourism expert specialised in culinary tourism/ food tourism, agri-tourism and community based tourism.
- Niels Peter Pretzmann, Founder and partner at Farmer's Circle (from soil-to-plate) in Lithuania.
22 Sept 2021
Edible School Gardens - Supportive Partners
Listen to the second part of our Edible School Gardens session.
Theme - Tourism, Global Knowledge Transfer, Community Building, Cultural Heritage
We need to rethink and redesign sustainable food experiences and culture in our cities, in order to raise the engagement level of the whole society. In 2022, we have 3 European Capitals of Culture cities (Esch2022, Kaunas2022 and NoviSad2022). How can these cities collaborate, and be the catalysts for upcoming Capitals of Cultures, through a participatory Edible School Garden project?
Curator:
Mustafa Sherif, Urban Planner at AFRY, Sweden
Talkers:
- Françoise Jacob, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Serbia
- Karine Paris, Coordinator Urban Gardening, CELL – The Transition Hub, Luxembourg
- Jonatan Leer, Head of Food and Tourism Research, University College Absalon, Denmark
22 Sept 2021
Edible School Gardens - Community Engagers
Listen to the first part of our Edible School Gardens session.
Topic - Education, Curriculum Design, Sovereignty
Given the nature of edible school gardens, they are part of the infrastructure of educational institutions. How can we make sure that the entire ecosystem is inclusive and represents the same values? What are the key roles for successful community engagement?
Curator:
Julia Dalmadi, Director of Community Programs at Future Food Institute, Germany
Talkers:
- Angela McKee Brown, Executive Director at The Edible Schoolyard Project, USA
- Sally Bourdon, Action Researcher at Fab Lab Barcelona
- Dragana Djuric, Director at National Association of Parents and Teachers of Serbia
- Bjorn Low, Executive Director at Edible Garden City, Singapore
18 May 2021
Community Women & Recipes for Change
How do Social Gastronomy organisations respond inequities in the food systems? Can we get inspired by the courageous women building resilient communities?
Join our first Social Gastronomy Talk discussing the importance and offering solutions in how we foster solidarity, resilience and culture of cooperation.
9 May 2021
Organic Food - Drivers in emerging markets
Do people understand the value of food today? Our Nordic Talk focuses on front-runners that share their experience and know-how in building resilient societies. Organics are often more expensive, what can we do to mitigate this? We are living in a time where information is abundant and accessibility isn’t an issue, but at the same time we can’t (or shouldn’t) trust all the “information” we may find. Ironically, it’s harder than ever to be well informed nowadays. It’s also harder than ever to make good food choices.
Talkers are hand-picked for their thought-provoking work and their backgrounds, combined with fresh thinking and a back-to-the-roots approach. What does an urban farmer in Malmö, a creative restaurant supervisor in Vilnius and a Finnish eclectic food professional have in common?
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
594
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Podcast Authority Score: 19 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
11
Social presence
0
YouTube
64
Engagement
0
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