Fighting food waste towards a new social food chain: The Egg of Columbus workshop

From 29 February to 4 March 2016, seventeen students of Design and one student of Educational Studies designed and tested recipes for fruit and vegetables with the aim of recycling unsold food. The goal of the experimentation was to verify the strategies aimed at improving homeless people’s access to a certain and healthy daily meal. The workshop was named ‘The Egg of Columbus’ and it was led by two designers and one chef. It took place in a non-professional kitchen, inside a municipal building, which is a location for social inclusion and interdisciplinary education projects. Some homeless adults with prior kitchen experiences actively participated in the workshop, offering their knowledge and collaborating with the students at every stage of the project. The group successfully produced and tested nineteen food transformation strategies. These were recipes that promoted transformation of the surplus produce, preserving its nutritional values and making it available to the deferred consumption. The food design experience offered new perspectives about the food chain for night shelters focusing on the issues of right to food, sustainability and circular economy.