FoodLoops Empowers Schools and Communities to Tackle Food Waste Across the Baltic Sea Region

The challenge of food waste often feels immense — an industrial-scale problem that seems far removed from our everyday lives. But what if the solution began in the most unexpected place: a school canteen?

This question became the foundation of the FoodLoops project, an ambitious Interreg Baltic Sea Region (BSR) initiative that envisioned a future where leftover school meals were not a problem but a valuable resource. Across Finland, Poland, Lithuania, and Germany, the project successfully brought together students, farmers, municipal authorities, and caterers to achieve one key goal: to close the bio-waste loop in real time.

This is the story of how a groundbreaking idea moved from a blueprint to reality — sparking systemic change and teaching a new generation the true meaning of a circular economy.

Hands-On Learning: Students Leading the Change

The project’s success lay in its practical and hands-on approach. In Gdańsk, Poland, the spirit of circularity came to life at Primary School No. 61. It was not just a lesson — it became an experiment led entirely by students.

Under the guidance of a local farmer, forty students from the “Nature Around Us” group became the project’s first circular economy practitioners. They did more than separate food scraps — they launched a hot composting pilot, a process that required careful monitoring of temperature and humidity. Their reward came when they watched kitchen and green waste transform into nutrient-rich compost.

“It wasn’t just about reducing waste; it was about creating value,” explained one project partner.

By the end of the pilot, these young pioneers were using their own compost to fertilize the school garden beds, where they grew potatoes. The simple yet powerful connection — from plate, to compost pile, to the next meal — created a living example of sustainability in action.

Beyond One School: Building Cooperation for Systemic Change

The FoodLoops story extends far beyond a single school. It is a story of collaboration and transformation. The project recognized that solving the food waste challenge required more than changing students’ habits — it required changing the system itself.

To achieve this, FoodLoops worked to bridge long-standing gaps between actors who rarely collaborated. The initiative successfully brought together municipal authorities, schools, farmers, and catering companies on a common platform to co-create integrated and effective solutions for circular food systems.

Key Achievements Driven by Collaboration

1. Launch of the Flagship FoodLoops Manual

One of the project’s key milestones was the completion and wide dissemination of the “Manual on Local Cooperation for Circular Bio-Waste in Schools and Beyond.”

This practical guide was developed using insights from pilot activities and refined through extensive partner feedback.

The manual provides a step-by-step methodology that helps different target groups — local public authorities, schools and education centres, farmers and their associations, and catering companies — to adapt, implement, and sustain circular bio-waste systems suited to their local realities.

2. Engaging Target Groups for Systemic Change

The project placed strong emphasis on co-creation, which was reflected in the active engagement of its key target groups.

• Local Public Authorities:

  Municipal officials participated in workshops to explore innovative models of public procurement and to learn how to adapt these models to support regionally grown food in schools.

• Education and Training Centres (Schools):

  School administrators and teachers engaged in hands-on food waste reduction initiatives, such as the hot composting pilot in Gdańsk, where students transformed classroom waste into compost for school gardens.

• Farmers and Farmers’ Associations:

  Farmers and their associations joined roundtables and workshops to identify new opportunities for collaboration, promote the use of bio-waste as natural fertilizer, and strengthen sustainable farming practices.

• Catering Companies and SMEs:

  Catering companies participated in workshops to explore ways to use more regionally grown food in school meals, reduce waste, and support healthier, more circular food systems.

3. Scaling Up Through Replication Workshops

FoodLoops took significant steps to extend its model beyond its core partner countries of Finland, Lithuania, and Poland.

Two major replication workshops were held, including one in Wuppertal, Germany, achieving several impactful results:

• Training External Stakeholders:

  Municipalities and schools from several Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries received practical training on how to adapt the FoodLoops Manual to their local contexts and implement circular bio-waste systems effectively.

• Launching New Initiatives:

  The workshops led to the co-design of a local action plan for the establishment of a “Circular Food Round Table” in Wuppertal. This permanent forum now enables collaboration among municipal authorities, schools, farmers, and caterers to jointly develop and coordinate circular food solutions.

4. Addressing Challenges Through Adaptive Management

The project recognized that digital formats alone could not maintain momentum or foster meaningful collaboration.

In response, the FoodLoops consortium adopted an adaptive management approach, combining online webinars with on-site study visits — including trips to the Green Genius Biogas Plant in Lithuania and a composting facility in Milan, Italy.

This approach proved vital for building trust and enabling the deep dialogue necessary to drive complex, systemic change.

5. Maximizing Impact Through European Synergies

A central feature of the project’s approach was collaboration and clustering with other European Union initiatives.

By connecting with LIFE BIOBEST, HOOP, Circular FoodShift, CHORIZO, and StratKIT+, FoodLoops enhanced its knowledge base and broadened the dissemination of its results.

This cooperation ensured that FoodLoops’ school-level pilots were aligned with wider EU behavioral research, policy frameworks, and bioeconomy strategies, reinforcing the project’s long-term impact.

Lasting Impact and Legacy

The FoodLoops project achieved far more than a series of pilots — it built a sustainable platform for change.

It showed that when municipal representatives, farmers, teachers, and students work together, even complex systemic challenges can be addressed collaboratively.

Today, its legacy is visible in a new generation of informed citizens and a new set of practical tools for cooperation.

The FoodLoops Manual remains a blueprint for replication, the student-led composting initiatives continue to expand, and the collaboration frameworks established through the project are still in operation.

Together, they demonstrate that the future of the circular economy is already growing — starting right here, in the heart of our school communities.