Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
147 results(1 / 6)
Food sharing in Freiburg
2026Jennifer Lyons, Anna Davies · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Germany (Freiburg)
This report, part of the CULTIVATE project, assesses the sustainability impacts of Food Sharing Initiatives (FSIs) in Freiburg. It combines insights from CULTIVATE's Food Sharing Map with sustainability impact assessment (SIA) data submitted by FSIs, estimating impacts across environmental, economic, and social pillars. The report notes that the presented indicators are a subset of total impacts and estimations will become more accurate as more FSIs submit SIA data.
CommunityFood educationFood lossEconomicsـ- SUSTAINABLE FEATURES IN EDUCATION: Ecological Retrofitting Of Existing Campuses
2026Manal Emhemed Mu Chalgham, Halil Semih Eryıldız · Al-Farooq Journal of Sciences · Turkey (Istanbul)
This case study focuses on Okan University's Tuzla Campus in Istanbul, which already has sustainable features. The research proposes ecological retrofitting measures like edible landscaping, rainwater harvesting, and waste management to improve environmental performance and create an interactive learning environment. Analysis revealed major weaknesses in underutilized green spaces, inefficient natural ventilation, and lacking water/waste management systems, which the proposed retrofits aim to address.
Food educationCommunityOrganic cycleDetermination of Flowering Plants in High Schools in Giresun City Center
2026İsmail Suat Başoğlu, Bahadır KOZ · Karadeniz Fen Bilimleri Dergisi · Turkey (Giresun City Center)
This research evaluated the diversity of flowering plants, physical properties of garden areas, and green space in 18 high schools in Giresun City Center. A total of 45 flowering plant species were identified in the school gardens, but the overall presence of endemic and rare species was found to be low. These findings indicate that high school gardens in Giresun City Center require improvement in terms of existing green areas and plant diversity.
Limited or null effectBiodiversityFood educationDesign as a tool for experiential food education: Research into practice through a proximity-based therapeutic garden
2026Anna C. Catania, Carmen Trischitta · Design Studies · Italy
This paper examined the role of design as a catalyst in experiential food education through the Curortò project, a therapeutic garden established within the G. Di Cristina Children's Hospital. Employing a participatory action research methodology, the project involved hospitalized children, healthcare professionals, educators, and local community actors in a collaborative design process. Detailed observation, field diaries, and qualitative interviews provided evidence of significant improvements in children's understanding of seasonal food cycles, resource management, and circular economy principles, accompanied by reduced stress levels and increased operational autonomy.
Food educationHealthCommunityOrganic cycleInsect Biodiversity: Drawing with Children as Approach to the World of Garden Insects
2026Marcia Eugenio-Gozalbo, Inés Ortega-Cubero, Rafael Suárez-López · International explorations in outdoor and environmental education · Spain (Soria)
This chapter describes an educational project conducted with 8-year-old children in the Organic Learning Garden of the Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Spain. The project aimed to promote detailed observation and learning about insect morphology and diversity through scientific drawing. The use of school gardens is proposed to foster children's knowledge and appreciation of insect biodiversity.
Food educationBiodiversityPollinatorsUrban Farming Microinterventions: Design-Led Case Studies from Poland
2026Aleksandra Nowysz, Łukasz Szczepanowicz · Sustainability · Poland
This paper examines the effectiveness of urban farming microinterventions through three design-led case studies in Poland. The cases include "Blooming Structure" (2018, Warsaw), a temporary hydroponic installation; "Micro-cultivation" (2018, Warsaw), a shopfront vertical demonstration farm; and "Micro-cultivation 2" (2019), modular cultivation furniture. The analysis combined project documentation with practice-based observations, applying five interpretive dimensions: spatial fit, technical feasibility, communicative legibility, replicability, and social programming. Findings indicate that successful microinterventions align legible cultivation infrastructure with high visibility, accessibility, and participatory formats that support skills transfer and copying-based scaling. Limitations of this study include the small sample size and its concentration on projects from Poland.
DIYCommunityFood educationDigital agricultureJaparé. Il était un jardin…
2026Pascale Darras, Henri Santiago Sanz · VST - Vie sociale et traitements · France (Toulouse)
Since 2014, the "Japaré" shared garden at the Gérard Marchant psychiatric hospital in Toulouse, France, has served as a unique third place. It welcomes a diverse group of volunteers, including patients, professionals, children, and families, offering a space for voluntary market gardening or simply relaxation, without specific programs or obligations.
CommunityHealthWelfareFood educationDeveloping approaches to promote uptake of nutritionally optimised hyper local living greens for Alder Hey Children's Hospital patients.
2026Beth Myers · University of Liverpool · United Kingdom
This thesis investigates how fresh greens from controlled environment urban agriculture can support children and families at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital. The study used an action research approach, including observations and playful interventions like recipe cards and tasting events, to understand engagement barriers and promote nutritious food. Evaluation based on fieldnotes, distribution counts, and informal feedback indicated that small, low-cost materials can improve the atmosphere of clinical spaces and facilitate conversations about food.
HealthFood educationIntroducing Agroforestry into Urban Planning: A Procedural Approach for Italian Cities
2026Marco Focacci, Isabella De Meo, Alessandro Paletto, Francesca Ugolini, Fabio Salbitano · Land · Italy
A study developed a procedural approach to introduce agroforestry into urban planning and tested it in Sesto Fiorentino, Central Italy, involving 170 stakeholders in a questionnaire survey. Respondents preferred gradually introducing agroforestry into green infrastructure, with educational food forests and alley cropping being favored. While decision-makers incorporated agroforestry into city technical standards, urban planners were reluctant to include it at the strategic level in the city development plan.
PolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageFood educationAgronomic and organizational aspects of Barcelona's community gardens
2025· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Spain (Barcelona)
A study analysing both the agronomic and the organisational dimensions of Barcelona's community gardens, examining empirically how citizen-led urban gardens are managed and run.
CommunityFood educationOrganic cycleAgronomic Use of Urban Composts from Decentralized Composting Scenarios: Implications for a Horticultural Crop and Soil Properties
2025Irigoyen I., López M., Orden L., Moral R., Nogués I., Bustamante M.Á. · Agronomy · Europe (urban agriculture focus)
June 2025 study examining how decentralized and community composting are emerging as novel scenarios favoring localized management and valorization of organic waste streams. Supports organic waste reduction at community level and nutrient cycling for urban agriculture fertilization, offering alternatives to centralized composting.
CompostOrganic cycleFood educationInfrastructuring for caring food practices: learnings from an Alpine community academy
2025Bianca Elzenbaumer, Flora Mammana, Carmen Gonzalez Miranda, Irene Manfrini · Local Environment · Italy
This paper explores grassroots infrastructuring supporting communal learning projects focused on caring food practices, from the perspective of practitioners at La Foresta community academy in the Italian Alps. It presents four interdependent activities—a community garden, a participatory drinks initiative, a mobile bread oven, and a forest school—demonstrating how food fosters community economies and empowers eco-social transformation.
CommunityFood educationEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceAsyl, Gemüse und Nachhaltigkeit: Urban Gardening in einer Unterkunft für geflüchtete Menschen
2025Juliane Forßmann, Simon Goebel · Zeitschrift für Flüchtlingsforschung · Germany
An urban gardening project in a residential facility for up to 230 refugees in Germany aims to counteract precarious living conditions. While the garden offers a low-threshold space for knowledge exchange on resource-saving cultivation, biodiversity, and health promotion, this paper also reflects on the project's limits.
Limited or null effectCommunityWelfareHealthBiodiversityFood educationClimate changeTurin Living Lab
2025Silvia Barbero, Federica Larcher · · Italy (Turin)
This chapter explores the role of the Turin Living Lab in testing nature-based solutions (NBS) in the Mirafiori Sud district of Italy. Local schools play a significant role in testing these solutions. Seven NBS types have been implemented, including new soil, urban horticulture, aquaponics, green roofs and walls, and green corridors.
CommunityBiodiversityPollinatorsPolicyFood educationProefGroen (Taste Green/Test Green):A healthy diet can also be tasty and sustainable
2025Coosje Dijkstra, Jutka Halberstadt, Jaap Seidell, Arnoud Verhoefff · VU Research Portal · Netherlands (Amsterdam)
In a school garden in Amsterdam-Zuidoost, children were amazed when their teacher pulled a radish from the ground and ate it. Most children followed suit and discovered that their self-harvested salad was tasty without dressing.
Food educationHealthCommunityEl fenómeno de los huertos urbanos y sus posibilidades para el Trabajo Social Comunitario
2025Mercedes Muriel Sáiz · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Madrid)
This article examines the phenomenon of urban gardens from a socio-community perspective, based on a methodology combining a literature review and participant observation in the community garden Ensancha el huerto (Alcorcón, Madrid). The analysis shows that urban gardens operate as micro-ecosystems of mutual support and learning, but the study also highlights risks associated with institutionalization, commodification, and legal insecurity surrounding such initiatives.
Governance failureCommunityFood educationPolicyWelfareRegenerative pedagogies: ecology and circularity of timber at Mudchute City Farm
2025Fereday, George, Tang, Bo · London Met Repository (London Metropolitan University) · United Kingdom
This case study examined the integration of regenerative pedagogy in undergraduate architectural education through annual timber structures workshops at Mudchute City Farm, London, over a six-year period. Second-year students learned regenerative design principles focused on climate change, local ecology, and adaptive timber reuse, fostering circular and regenerative design skills. The program prepares students for future architectural challenges, including reducing carbon emissions and increasing biodiversity.
Climate changeBiodiversityFood educationEl Aprendizaje Servicio a través de los ecohuertos escolares de la Universidad de Salamanca: una herramienta innovadora del siglo XXI al alcance de la Agenda 2030
2025David Caballero Franco, Judith Martín Lucas, Parra Nieto, Gabriel · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Spain (Salamanca)
This work describes the Community School Gardens Network (HecoUSAL) project, a Service-Learning program launched in 2013 at the University of Salamanca, Spain. The program aims to improve university education quality, strengthen social commitment, expand sustainability culture, and develop sustainability skills among students. It proposes new teaching-learning models that integrate sustainability skills through multi-sensory, nature-based educational experiences within school environments.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeA Tale of Soft Spaces and Seeds Under the Snow
2025Francesca Gotti, Yona Catrina Schreyer · field · Italy (Bergamo)
This essay describes two alternative spatial practices implemented in Bergamo, Italy: "Software-ing Spaces," a living-designing-building residency in a former monastery, and "Seeds Under the Snow," an experimental laboratory for knowledge exchange and innovative methods within Bergamo's social gardens. Both projects aim to challenge systemic procedures in the construction sector and develop spatial ideas based on empathy, synchronizing place, resources, users, and builders.
CommunityDigital agricultureFood educationNordplus project “Healing greenery” – Green care education for a changing environment
2025Kadri Maikov · Vytautas Magnus University · Europe
The Nordplus project "Healing greenery" has fostered interdisciplinary collaboration since 2018, bringing together international students and lecturers to design healing green spaces. Educational projects serve as a research foundation to raise awareness of environmental risks and the importance of green spaces for mental health, addressing the new generation's disconnect from nature. Participants in annual projects (2021-2024, 19-26 participants each year) highlighted environmental risks including insufficient green spaces and limited awareness of nature’s impact on health.
CommunityHealthFood educationCan school gardens contribute to resilient communities from a scientific and eco-social perspective in early childhood education?
2025Lourdes Aragón Núñez, Beatriz Erdozain Manzano · Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education · Spain
Diagnostic research using a questionnaire with 45 closed-ended and 9 open-ended questions was conducted in 21 urban schools in Spain that use gardens in early childhood education. The study assessed the resilience level of school gardens across environmental, economic, social, and curriculum dimensions. Results indicate school gardens are valuable for transforming urban environments and creating resilient communities, generally showing a medium level of resilience, with weaknesses identified in environmental and social dimensions.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeBiodiversitySchulgärten als BNE-Lernorte für Studierende
2025Leena Bröll, Aline Haustein · Perspektiven auf Lehre Journal for Higher Education and Academic Development · Germany
An evaluation of a school gardening seminar for student teachers in Saxony, Germany, revealed that practical gardening imparts specialist knowledge, reflection ability, and motivation. These skills are considered crucial for prospective teachers to transmit sustainable values to future generations. School garden lessons, historically introduced in the GDR in 1963/64, are now integrated into primary school science lessons in Saxony.
Food educationCommunityCultivating Bonds: On Urban Allotment Gardens and Their Relationship with Social Capital
2025Noelia Fernández-Salido, Alfonso Gallego‐Valadés, Carlos Serra-Castells, Jorge Garcés Ferrer · Agriculture · Spain (Valencia)
This qualitative study in Valencia, Spain, explored the role of urban allotment gardens in producing social capital. Fifteen in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants involved in urban garden projects. Findings indicate that urban gardens act as relational infrastructures, fostering intergenerational learning and inclusive participation. However, exclusionary attitudes and fragmented governance were found to limit their potential.
CommunityPolicyFood educationPlanting futures: School-based food forests and their contribution to holistic education for sustainable development
2025Julia Gobs · GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society · Germany
This study investigated the school-based food forest project at Chestnut School in Northern Germany, using interviews and participatory methods framed by the Whole School Approach. School-based food forests contribute to holistic education for sustainable development by offering interdisciplinary, hands-on learning environments. They promote systemic thinking, agency, and self-efficacy, fostering human-nature connections, critical thinking, and sustainable food practices.
Food educationBiodiversityCommunityClimate changeGasteizko eskola-baratzeen ezarpenaren eta erabilera didaktikoaren analisia
2025Iratz Pou de Los Mozos, Igone Palacios-Agúndez, Daniel Zuazagoitia, Unai Coronel Gastiain · IKASTORRATZA e-journal on Didactics · Spain
This field research analyzed the presence and didactic use of school gardens in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, using a two-phase questionnaire approach. The study found a large presence and high didactic use of school gardens, with many interesting experiences, but noted room for improvement. Teacher training and networking among schools were recommended.
Food educationCommunity