Food Sharing Calculator
The Food Sharing Calculator is an online tool that helps assess the costs, benefits and impacts of food sharing. Designed for food sharing initiatives (FSIs), policymakers, funders and citizens, it helps identify and navigate costs and benefits, measure impact and guide investment in more resilient and sustainable food systems. Developed as part of the CULTIVATE project, the Food Sharing Calculator is one of the tools within the Food Sharing Compass.
Rather than serving as a detailed accounting tool, the Food Sharing Calculator is designed as a learning, communication, and advocacy resource. It helps food sharing initiatives understand the resources they need to start, run, and sustain their activities; identify hidden or overlooked costs; connect these costs to wider benefits and impacts; and communicate their value to funders, public authorities, partners, and communities.
The Food Sharing Calculator has been co-created with FSIs, municipalities, researchers, communication and knowledge brokerage actors. The Food Sharing Calculator differentiates among three core food sharing activities: growing food together, cooking and eating together, and re-distributing surplus food, recognising that many FSIs undertake more than one of these activities.
The Food Sharing Calculator was co-created with food sharing initiatives, municipalities, researchers, communication experts, and knowledge brokers across Europe. It focuses on three key food sharing activities: growing food together, cooking and eating together, and re-distributing surplus food, recognising that many food sharing initiatives combine two or more of these activities.
The Food Sharing Calculator includes three focus areas:
- Navigating costs of food sharing activities
- Understanding benefits of food sharing activities
- Assessing impacts of food sharing activities
The food sharing costs include financial spending as well as time, efforts and other material and non-material inputs to start, operate and maintain a food sharing activity.
The food sharing benefits are positive social, environmental, economic or other outcomes from food sharing activities, often presented in qualitative terms.
The food sharing impacts are actual sustainability impacts from food sharing activities, which are tailored to a particular FSI, can be either positive or negative, and are often presented in quantitative terms.
Do you want to learn more about costs and benefits of food sharing in European cities? Read the CULTIVATE reports.
Do you want to see examples of sustainability impact assessments by other FSIs? Visit the CULTIVATE Sharing Solutions Talent Garden
