How the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact has grown from a shared vision into a global movement for urban food transformation
Ten years ago, a bold idea took root in Milan: that cities – not just nations – could lead the way towards fairer, healthier, and more sustainable food systems. What began as the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP), launched in 2015 alongside Expo Milano, has since become a global movement uniting over 330 cities across six continents. Together, these cities represent hundreds of millions of urban residents, all committed to transforming how food is produced, shared, and valued.
A decade on, the landscape looks both transformed and urgent. Rising food costs and food insecurity, diet-related illnesses, and climate pressures are reshaping daily life across Europe and beyond. Yet, cities have proven that local action can drive systemic change, from tackling food waste and hunger to reshaping procurement and empowering communities. This spirit of urban leadership came vividly to life in Milan last week, where more than 500 delegates gathered to celebrate the Pact’s tenth anniversary and to chart its future course.
From vision to implementation: Milan’s food journey
Hosted at the University of Milan, the MUFPP Global Forum brought together mayors, researchers, civil society organisations, and city networks such as Eurocities for a week of exchange and reflection. Opening the Forum, Milan’s Vice Mayor Anna Scavuzzo, alongside Mayor Giuseppe Sala, University Rector Marina Brambilla and Professor Jane Battersby of Cape Town University, set the tone for a milestone gathering rooted in both celebration and challenge.
Over the course of the week, city leaders from Milan, Bangkok, Quelimane and hundreds of other urban centres from around the world shared stories of transformation – of how a shared vision has become tangible change in schools, markets, and neighbourhoods. Scavuzzo reflected on Milan’s own path from Expo 2015 to today: a city that has embedded food into its core policies, connecting local innovation with global solidarity.
Cities learning from cities
Amid the plenaries and panels, Eurocities’ Working Group on Food convened its members for a deep dive into Europe’s urban food policy landscape. The meeting served both as a progress check and a forward-looking strategy session, focusing on how to strengthen collaboration within the Pact’s European network.
Cities exchanged peer-learning experiences on public procurement, citizens’ empowerment through models like food councils, social inclusion, and rural-urban linkages, including insights from the CLEVERFOOD project, which has supported 15 city-to-city study visits leading to local action plans. Discussions also explored how members could take a more active role in shaping the group’s next phase: hosting thematic meetings or a Eurocities Academy training expanding national participation, or contributing to focused subgroups for example.
Policy discussions provided a sobering counterpoint. With the EU’s forthcoming seven-year budget and Horizon Europe/FP10 agenda on the horizon, participants noted a shift in the European policy narrative, from the Farm to Fork ambition towards a more agriculture and competitiveness-focused frame.
City representatives called for a stronger urban voice in EU policymaking, particularly in light of the upcoming food dialogue and the evolving EU Anti-Poverty Strategy. Access to EU funds, equitable school meals under the European Child Guarantee, and robust mechanisms to address food poverty emerged as top priorities.
Two conversations that matter: CLEVERFOOD roundtables
Alongside the Working Group meeting, two roundtables under the CLEVERFOOD project, dug deeper into specific policy challenges.
The first, organised by the city of Milan, focusing on the EU School Scheme, revealed a patchwork of implementation across Europe. Participants spoke candidly about the administrative hurdles schools face, the low visibility of cities within the programme, and the tension between local sourcing and EU-wide supply chains.
Yet, amid the challenges, cities also shared inspiring solutions: mid-morning fruit or soup offers replacing sugary snacks, integrating food education into lessons, and small logistical fixes that make healthy food easier to serve. Evidence presented showed that such initiatives can improve children’s overall diet satisfaction, but also underscored that teachers need better support and resources if these schemes are to thrive.
The second roundtable, organised by Eurocities, focused on Measuring and Communicating the Impact of Urban Food Systems. Participants, from European Commission representatives to city officials and researchers to NGOs, as well as representatives from the Urban Agenda Food Partnership, which Eurocities is involved in, explored how better data monitoring and storytelling can help sustain political commitment.
The discussion centred around three key questions: how to ground food policy in both data and lived realities, what indicators are needed to shape stronger policies, and how to communicate successful measures to decision makers.
On the first question, participants highlighted the importance of starting with a clear understanding of local contexts and existing data before designing policies. Cities shared experiences of mapping their food systems, identifying gaps in available information, and engaging local stakeholders to ensure policies reflect real community needs. Several noted that lived experience itself is a form of data, and that qualitative insights, such as levels of community trust or satisfaction, should be valued alongside quantitative metrics. Participants also stressed the need to involve different levels of governance in order to connect local realities to national and European frameworks.
The second discussion explored which indicators can best guide and evaluate food system transformation. Cities pointed to the challenge of gathering consistent, comparable data, especially on consumption, food environments, and small businesses. While environmental and economic indicators remain central for political buy-in, participants underlined the need to also measure social outcomes such as equity, resilience, and participation, and to measure the connections between urban food systems and other urban dimensions such as housing and mobility. Universities and EU bodies presented efforts to develop harmonised frameworks, including FutureFoodS food systems observatory and the EU Food System Dashboard, aimed at linking local and European monitoring.
Finally, the conversation turned to communication. Participants agreed that data alone is not enough to inspire political commitment; it must be translated into compelling narratives and human stories. Success depends on knowing one’s audience, whether citizens, local councillors, or EU policymakers, and tailoring messages to their priorities, from public health to competitiveness. Several contributors emphasised the value of citywide, cross-party approaches and of making achievements visible through public events and storytelling. Effective communication, they concluded, can help safeguard food policies across political cycles and build wider understanding of the role of food in creating sustainable, healthy, and resilient cities.
Recognising city leadership: the Milan Pact Awards
The Global Forum also hosted the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact Awards 2025, celebrating six cities that exemplify innovation, inclusion, and sustainability in their food systems. From over 340 submissions, winners were selected across the six categories of the Milan Pact – from governance to food waste reduction – with special mentions given to several Eurocities’ member cities leading the charge.
Beyond the numbers, Shared Table has reshaped community life: 82% of participants report a stronger sense of belonging, 71% have made new friends.
Copenhagen and Grenoble Alpes Metropole were recognised for their food governance, embedding food policy within broader sustainability and health frameworks, while Berlin and Turin stood out for sustainable diets and nutrition, and Nantes Metropole for advancing access to local food production. Paris and Liege received special mentions for reimagining food supply and distribution systems with a focus on zero waste; and Barcelona received a special mention for reducing food waste.
The top honour in the category of food waste reduction went to Vantaa, Finland, for its decade-long Shared Table initiative, a pioneering model that turns surplus food into social connection and climate action. What began as “a simple idea – use the waste food for better purposes,” as Mayor Pekka Timonen recalled, has become a citywide ecosystem linking 50 surplus donors with NGOs and community partners through a central logistics hub. Each week, the network redistributes around 20,000 kilogrammes of edible food, feeding nearly 10,000 people and saving half a million kilos of food from waste annually.
Beyond the numbers, Shared Table has reshaped community life: 82% of participants report a stronger sense of belonging, 71% have made new friends, and one-third say the initiative has reduced their need for other assistance. Today, the project’s ripple effects extend even further, from new biogas pilots to inter-city collaboration across Finland. As the mayor concluded, “It’s a simple idea that has grown into a big system…and we can still develop the system further.”
Vantaa’s story is more than an award winner; it is a reminder of how cities can turn local ingenuity into global inspiration.
Ten years of success
A keynote by Dr. Fabrice DeClerck, Chief Science Officer at EAT, reframed urban food policy through the lens of planetary boundaries. Drawing on the newly published updated EAT-Lancet work, he showed that food systems are the single largest driver of planetary boundary transgressions, from biodiversity loss to freshwater use, and argued that cities are uniquely positioned to “bend the curve.” The Planetary Health Diet remains a steady compass, but the emphasis fell on justice: the right to food and to a stable environment sits alongside responsibilities, especially for high-consuming populations whose choices effectively erode others’ rights when considered within a rationale of planetary boundaries.
The takeaway for city leaders was practical and urgent: bundle context-specific policies, use procurement and waste reduction to free land back to nature, and build coalitions that can withstand political headwinds and redirect finance towards what improves health and the planet.
A final panel event during the closing session, which included Madeleine Coste, Head of Food at Eurocities, translated that urgency into city-ready moves. Speakers converged on a few levers that work in urban settings: treat nutrition as core infrastructure (not an add-on); use procurement data to set targets and tell a credible story of progress; and make school meals a systems tool that shapes diets, supports local producers, and protects vulnerable households.
Together we believe that food for all is our shared responsibility: to build food systems that nourish people, restore the planet, and sustain peace
Cities were urged to co-design with civil society so that policies endure beyond election cycles; to back resilient neighbourhood food markets where small vendors can thrive; to lean on universities and peer networks for capacity, evidence; and to candidly share learning with each other from what hasn’t worked.
Moreover, as the past decade has shown, joining the voices of so many local and regional actors can have a real impact not only on the development of urban food systems, but on how it is reflected in EU policy debates.
Closing the session, Anna Scavuzzo Vice Mayor of Milan, shared a final declaration endorsed by participants, which celebrated the success of ten years of the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact, while commenting that she now looks ahead “with renewed determination” to the next ten years.
Her final words captured the room: “Together we believe that food for all is our shared responsibility: to build food systems that nourish people, restore the planet, and sustain peace.”
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All images © MUFPP
