Following the activities and the heritage of the Italian NGO “Consorzio Risteco” founded in Turin on 2005, from 2018 the legal entity managing the “Eating City International Platform” become a French NGO called “Risteco – La ville qui mange” with his HQ in Marcieux (Savoie).
The Eating City International Platform was founded in 2010 by Maurizio Mariani, Isabel Lacourt and Arie van den Brand. It is co-funded foremost by the CLM Foundation for the Human Progress (FPH) , in Paris, and by other public and private partners. While its principle aim is to stimulate social and business dialogue, it also produces guidance and research for a more sustainable food system in the public sector.
The Platform has an international reach with truly global connections working with young professionals, academics and influencers in the food sector. Through Eating City, early career managers, food producers, specialists and students involved in the food system, aged 22 to 32, gain firsthand knowledge of sustainable food systems and how to implement them.
There is a particular focus on Public Foodservice. This means those businesses, civic institutions, and companies responsible for meals prepared outside the home including restaurants, schools and hospitals and in many other publicly funded situations. Eating City is interested in all of these while its primary focus is schools and welfare catering which is the largest and perhaps most influential sector; it challenges how and where the food is procured, the nature of food that is sourced, menu design, how food is prepared and consumed and how it can be used to produce a multiple benefit for society, the economy and the environment as the 3 pillars of Sustainable Development.
The role of government and civil society, policy and practice for public procurement and catering operations as the key levers for change is destined to be at the heart of Eating City’s future work.