Research projects

In mid-January 2024, the German government adopted the first national food strategy entitled ‘Good Food for Germany’. This pioneering strategy, developed under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), aims to give all people in Germany easy access to healthy and sustainable food - regardless of their origin, education or income.

A central component of the strategy is the model region competition ‘Food transition in the region’. In this way, the BMEL is promoting innovative approaches to make regional value chains more efficient and shorten the path ‘from farm to fork’.

In Dortmund, numerous stakeholders are already contributing to the transformation of the food system. The FoodConnectRuhr project aims to establish and consolidate a network along the entire regional food value chain in Dortmund and the region. Sustainable and healthy menus based on regional products and the increased use of organic food in out-of-home catering will create incentives for the expansion of regional (organic) agriculture. The aim is to ensure access to healthy, sustainable food for as many people as possible in Dortmund and the region through inclusive support programmes for financially disadvantaged households.

The project consortium of four partners from science, city administration and civil society want to establish a regional, sustainable food value chain for healthy food in Dortmund and the region by the end of the project period and bring it together with out-of-home care.