Public procurement represents a decisive purchaser of food in Europe. Public authorities and local communities responsible for canteens and cafeterias in hospitals, schools etc. have into their hands a powerful opportunity to orientate food systems towards more sustainability, from the producer to the consumer. Throughout Europe, innovative strategies are emerging at local and national scales in favour of a more sustainable public food procurement. A shift from “low cost” procurement schemes to environmentally and socially performant approaches is necessary, and for that shift to happen, numerous experiences have highlighted that support and training for staff members and representatives in local authorities is crucial. Indeed, it’s a challenge for local players to develop the capacities to organize a “re-connexion” with food supply chains (especially local agriculture), to acquire new management methods of costs in food facilities and to design new procedures and tenders, among others. The aim of the project “Empowering Public Food Procurement” was to contribute to the empowerment of local players in the catering sector, by:•putting together practical knowledge of trainers on how to build sustainable food procurement at local scale in different European countries;•pooling concrete examples of good practices and innovative approaches in Europe, that can be mobilized in training activities for local actors;•proposing concrete recommendations for representatives / chefs / managers of municipalities’ catering, and for trainers who support them;•laying the foundation of European common leading principles to perform more sustainable food procurement in the catering sector. The project brought together eight organizations in seven countries: France, Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey and the Netherlands. The partner organizations all have competence in different areas of vocational education and training. They combine a broad spectrum of knowledge and practical know-how: consultancy and training skills for chefs, managers and municipalities’ representatives, expertise on sustainable food supply chains, experiences on designing transnational learning tools. The geographical scope of the partners permitted to juxtapose contrasted national situations towards public procurement and food supply chains, for rich and valuable exchanges of practices. The partners have shared summaries on the situation of training activities and initiatives supporting sustainability in food procurement, and have investigated case studies providing good practice examples in local communities in each project country. Two collective training sessions allowed the group to share their own field-based experiences and to gather country information and examples, enabling to sketch a European view of sustainability in food procurement support and training initiatives. Thanks to the partnership, the lessons learnt from the project have been and will be widely disseminated to a diversity of target groups: chefs, managers and responsible representatives at local level; national and European professional and institutional networks, in the sustainable food sector, the catering sector, national and European associations / initiatives run by local authorities. In a nutshell, the project has led to enhance trainers’ skills and expertise to support local communities, to provide orientations and practical recommendations for actors on-the-ground in the catering and agrofood sectors, and to raise awareness among decision makers for a switch to a more environmentally and socially performant food procurement in Europe.

"The Partnership “Preparing for the Future” developed ethical principles for organic business and employee contexts to a comprehensive European “Code of Good Organic Retailing Practice” for the trade sector. This Code described eight criteria that determine Good Organic Retailing practices: Social Aspects, Involvement in the Organic Sector, Product Quality, Sustainability in the Shop, Sustainable Relationships, Transparency, Open Communication, and Quality Management.In order to integrate the Code’s principles in the formal training of managers and personnel in the organic retail sector, but also for a transfer and promotion to the non-organic retail sector, the e-learning course and platform “Ecoretail” has been developed. Target groups of the Code concept and the e-learning training and platform were manager and staffs in organic shops and supermarket chains, institutions of adult education, trainers and teachers, representatives and stakeholders in organic retail sector, and decision-makers in public administration. The partnership consisted of nine partners from seven countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Turkey. It included organic retail associations, educational institutes and universities, marketing and consulting organizations.The first result of the project presented the ""heart"" of the identified themes for a “Code of Good Organic Retail Practice”, the criteria for the eight principles of the Code in business and staff contexts, provided in all partner languages and English. The second result is based on this concept: a Curriculum with Learning Outcomes for training on the ""Code"". The third result was a print version (PDF) of learning materials and course content for training of manager and staff in organic retail on the ""Code of Good Organic Retailing Practice"" in English language. The fourth result was the English pilot e-learning course “Ecoretail” for training on the ""Code of Good Organic Retailing Practice“.The fifth result consisting of seven national versions of the e-learning course “Ecoretail” in all partner countries and languages. “Preparing for the future” provides with this results an innovative certification standard and a regarding learning offer for the integration of ethical and sustainable principles in the daily practice of organic and conventional retail."

"The last 10-15 years have seen an increase in interest in organic production in the EU, which is due to the growing demand for organic products worldwide. The dynamic development of organic farming in recent years and the growing number of occupied areas and the number of farmers in the sector determine the need for training in this area. Ecological vegetable gardening mastered by adults with learning/cognitive disabilities is a novel concept. While ecological gardening, in general, is increasingly becoming popular, the actual training towards such gardening is barely existent, and entirely non-existent when we consider as a target group to be trained adults with learning/cognitive disabilities.The ECOGARD project aimed to enhance the access for all to vocational education and training (VET) and to support the raising of the improved qualification level of people with learning difficulties (participating as VET learners) in the field of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening which is one of the leading market areas in EU. This was not existing in the national classification of VET professions so far on the national and EU levels. The partnership achieved this by the development of a new occupational profile of ""Eco-vegetable gardening worker"", related curriculum, training modules, and (pre-, post-, and self-) assessment mechanisms. The main objectives of the project were:- Creating a VET training course to train teachers how to train students including those with learning/cognitive disabilities in becoming experts in ecological vegetable gardening, and as such also becoming experts in their own rights and able to pass their knowledge to other peers.- Supporting students with learning/cognitive disabilities in acquiring and developing key and transversal competences (social, civic, interpersonal, etc.) to foster employability, as well as elevate entrepreneurial skills among these VET learners towards professional development (social entrepreneurship).- Promoting social inclusion as this profession necessitate inclusion in the society, such as providing good and best practices training to VET students (including those with disabilities), thus embracing inclusion and diversity within the society.- Preparatory steps towards accreditation and update on the existing VET subjects with this novel job profile and its VET course.The project also offered the VET training through a novel MOBILE LEARNING which content is a very powerful base for supporting engagement, the participation of VET learners, and accessibility (especially for those learners with disabilities who cannot physically attend a face to face training sessions due to environmental accessibility problems). The ECOGARD project developed, implemented, and disseminated and exploited the following intellectual outputs: IO1: “Train the trainer” - Curriculum and training handbook on the provision of ecological (organic) vegetable gardening training (ECVET based) for VET trainer/teachers (funded by PMI) IO2: Training course on ecological vegetable gardening (ECVET based) for the students with learning disabilities IO3: Illustrated eco-vegetable gardening handbook IO4: Social entrepreneurship skills guidelines IO5: Ecological (organic) Vegetable Gardening Worker job profile IO6: Accessible mobile learning application for Android devices (funded by PMI)The achieved intellectual results of the project were 6, of which 4 were approved for funding, and IO1 and IO6 were developed in the form of self-participation and additionally funded by funds from PMI.The final versions of the Intellectual outputs are available via: https://ecogardening.eu/elearning/As direct target users, we involved VET trainers in the area of (organic) vegetable gardening, VET teachers who want to introduce Eco-vegetable gardening in their curricula, VET Students with learning/cognitive disabilities, VET Schools with garden in their training profiles, SMEs active in ecological gardening. Beneficiaries of the project outcomes were also employers, SMEs, NGOs of people with disabilities, Governmental educational institutions in the field of agriculture (Ministries, National VET agencies, directorates), Wider community (society) as final received of Eco-vegetable gardening production. The main impact of this novel VET course attained is the improvement of the (pre-) qualification of long-term unemployed people (including those with disabilities) who have a similar existing educational background in the field of gardening, seeds, and crop fields and would like further to extend it. This also contributed to the extension of the training offered by VET providers on the national and EU levels (ensured by the language versions of all intellectual outputs: EN, BG, SL, and TR).Transferability potential: the material is suitable also to be applied with other disadvantaged groups on the labour market such as refugees, long term unemployed people, low skilled and NEETs."