What this community must start, strengthen, or transform to drive change from within.

1. Lead by example: Transform public meals with the Planetary Health Diet (PHD).

Align public procurement standards with the PHD to advance healthy, sustainable, and just diets while respecting regionally and culturally diverse food traditions and preferences. Depending on the type of mandate and level of control over public food procurement, leverage the city’s purchasing power in schools, hospitals, canteens, and other public spaces to prioritise plant-rich, locally sourced meals and reduce food waste. Collaborate with private and public food service actors operating in public institutions, including local producers. Set a strong example by investing in nutritious, culturally appropriate, plant-rich daily meals for all school and pre-school children, supporting child health, improving education outcomes, strengthening local economies, and modeling sustainable diets.

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Addis Ababa  ● Copenhagen ● Kisumu ● New York City ● Surakarta

2. Build local multi-sector partnerships to design and promote locally rooted, systemic solutions that span the entire food chain, from production to consumption, disposal, and waste.

Invest in physical infrastructure and digital platforms that facilitate collaboration across the value chain on PHD-based targets. Proactively building partnerships can effectively bridge demand for and supply of healthy and sustainable foods. This includes enhancing access to urban markets, where local (small-scale) farmers can strengthen shorter supply chains with local, sustainable and healthy foods.

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Portoviejo ● Sydney

3. Integrate sustainable food systems into city-wide planning.

Align city strategies and action plans on food, climate, environment, and biodiversity, taking a nexus approach, and coordinate engagement across city offices in areas such as transportation, energy, health, and infrastructure. City planning should consider food actions that address health and food security, as well as environmental adaptation and mitigation measures, such as community gardens and urban agriculture to dampen urban heat islands. Integrate targets, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for accountability and transparency. 

See City Short Story of Progress below: ●  São Paulo

4. Strengthen inclusive multi-actor food governance and food literacy initiatives.

Empower communities through local food literacy programmes, shared governance, and support for community-led innovations that promote equitable access and informed food choices, while recognising and protecting food sovereignty in the multicultural contexts of cities. Establish or support participatory food policy councils, partnerships and initiatives that mobilise diverse food actors, including urban and peri-urban entities, businesses, civil society, informal food sector actors and marginalised groups, to collaboratively create and implement policies for sustainable and equitable food systems.

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Austin ● Liège ● Seattle

5. Support and protect urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Promote nature-positive (urban) food production in areas where it can increase green space, improve biodiversity, and advance circular production systems, while also enabling access to markets. Work within and across cities to develop policies that prevent land conversion by combining incentives to protect ecosystems; shifting production to available degraded land; assessing and preventing imported ecosystem conversion; and repurposing existing public finance and subsidies to enable sustainable, deforestation- and conversion-free food production. More importantly, increase habitat within city boundaries setting a minimum of 10-20% green space per km2 to ensure accessibility to all city residents.

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ●  Los Angeles ●  Quezon ●  Rosario ●  São Paulo

6. Strengthen local food infrastructure for resilient markets, including informal contexts.

Prioritise investment in food infrastructure — markets, solidarity markets, community kitchens, food hubs, cold chains, composting, and digital support systems — to expand access to nutritious food, reduce loss while ensuring food safety, and build transparent and effective circular economies that connect local initiatives with regional producers. Embed food, post-harvest, and food-waste infrastructure in urban plans and budgets, while integrating informal vendors through culturally appropriate participatory planning. Recognise their essential role in ensuring access, livelihoods, and climate resilience, and design food environments that reflect local rhythms and cultural traditions. 

See City Short Story of Progress below:  ● Cape Town

7. Regulate food marketing in public spaces, promoting the positive attributes of nutritious and sustainable foods.

Restrict advertisement of unhealthy foods (including unhealthy ultra-processed foods, and foods high in added calories) in public spaces, especially in child-centred food environments. Promote positive, culturally relevant messaging for, and access to, healthy foods, focusing on the positive attributes of nutritious and sustainable foods. 

See City Short Story of Progress below: ● London

8. Engage with the private food sector to shift demand for healthier and more sustainable foods.

Collaborate with private food actors such as producers, suppliers, processors, distributors, retailers, and service providers, communicating the business case of full-value chain, voluntary, and coordinated initiatives and targets, instead of isolated, incremental actions. Tailor approaches for smaller producers, reducing burdens through partnerships, shared infrastructure, and NGO intermediaries. Mobilise tracking tools, such as the WRI’s Coolfood Calculator, to support efficient planning and transparent monitoring.

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Liège ● Milan ● New York

9. Support access to healthy foods in disadvantaged neighbourhoods and low-income areas.

Support (small) food suppliers operating in socio-economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods to expand the accessibility, desirability, and affordability of healthy food options, by offering technical and marketing assistance, such as product placement, promotions, and retailer access to healthy and sustainable food (e.g via local farmers’ markets). Enhance the purchasing power of low-income households with healthy food options through online vouchers and financial assistance. 

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● New York ● Seattle

Actions currently undertaken by our community that hinder progress towards healthier, more sustainable, and more just food systems and should be stopped or done differently.

1. Stop one-off interventions and encourage scalable and sustainable solutions that are accompanied by funding. Pilots have provided valuable learnings from diverse city interventions, helping to understand what works and demonstrate effectiveness. Dedicated complementary efforts are needed to ensure that such learnings are embedded within, and connected to broader long-term strategies through scaling. Scaling requires stable investments and sustainable financing to enable systemic, city-wide food policies that connect health, supply chains, social protection, and the environment— while also strengthening infrastructure and emergency preparedness. 

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Addis Ababa ● Paris ● Portoviejo

2. Stop using jargon to advocate for food system transformation. Be clear and inclusive. Using technical or specialised language when promoting food system change can alienate communities and stakeholders essential for action. To build an inclusive movement, communication must be clear, accessible, and framed in local terms, inviting participation rather than reinforcing silos or exclusive expertise.

3. Stop treating local food as a silver bullet. Recognise it will take multiple solutions.Stop emphasising local production as the one silver bullet for addressing complex food system challenges, such as reducing emissions. Take a systemic approach that recognises the significant social, economic, and environmental values of local production, but also the limits and capabilities of cities to encourage “healthy, sustainable, and just” national and global production. What people eat and where food is produced both need attention. 

See City Short Stories of Progress below: ● Birmingham ● Copenhagen

4. Stop one-size-fits-all procurement solutions. Engage with the full diversity of food actors. Avoid focusing exclusively on big food corporations when designing procurement processes. Engage with a greater number and diversity of actors, including small-scale producers and the informal sector in order to diversify food suppliers and increase social and economic resilience (particularly in low- and middle-income countries). This provides viable opportunities for small-scale businesses to flourish, embraces culturally-appropriate foods, and builds resilience in the food supply chain. These are the actors that give cities their unique feel and flaire. 

See City Short Story of Progress below: New York

Asks from this community to other communities that are necessary to overcome systemic barriers to action (“lock-ins”), pointing to opportunities for collaboration.

1. National and Regional Governments

a. Build policy alignment at scale. National governments need to adopt nationwide and cross-sector food system strategies to build internal policy coherence. This should include funding mechanisms that support policies, such as taxing unhealthy foods.

b. Promote plant-rich diets. Mobilise education campaigns, policy nudges, and procurement reforms to encourage plant-rich diets, including funding mechanisms that support policies, and the use of financial (i.e. taxation) and legislative tools to reinforce such reforms.

c. Prioritise and finance sustainably sourced school meal programmes.

d. Foster inclusive collaborative food governance and data collection through open-source and accessible, uniform, digital platforms. Digital platforms connect actors’ commitments along food networks, track food loss and waste, map supply chains, develop early warning systems, and monitor progress of collective goals. Participatory and community-led data collection methods enhance both data quality, transparency, and governance.

2. Retailers and Manufacturers

a. Secure commitments and action from businesses to shift and transform supply chains and effectively reduce the environmental impact (e.g. emissions) associated with food production and waste.

b. Promote healthy and sustainable foods and beverages supporting the shift in consumer demand, and reduce placement and promotions of unhealthy and ultra-processed foods.

3. Chefs, Restaurants and Food Service

a. Champion healthy and sustainable menus. Lead by example in showcasing the business opportunity of transforming menus through sourcing locally, reducing food waste, and prioritising delicious and nutritious plant-rich and minimally processed foods.

b. Empower staff and suppliers. Support training programmes and procurement policies that equip kitchen staff and food buyers to meet sustainability and nutrition targets.

4. Healthcare Professionals and Public Health Institutions

a. Promote food as a public health priority and investment. Integrate the PHD into public health strategies and clinical practice. Engage with cities in the co-development of food policies that improve diet-related health outcomes, while lowering their long-term medical costs.

b. Collaborate on behaviour change. Partner with cities in campaigns that promote healthy, sustainable eating and reduce food-related stigma and misinformation. Assist with management and monitoring of diet- and health-related data to effectively leverage public health strategies.

5. Consumer groups and Civil Society 

a. Raise awareness and build demand for better food systems. Continue to push for transparency, corporate accountability, and citizen participation in shaping local food environments.

b. Co-create community-driven solutions. Partner with city governments in designing and scaling community-based food programmes—such as urban gardens, cooperative groceries, and food recovery networks—that reflect local needs and empower citizens.

These short Stories of Progress were harvested by MUFFP and C40 Cities across their city networks to bring the Calls to Action to life.

Addis Ababa: School Meals Programme

Addis Ababa’s school meals programme provides two nutritious meals daily to over 800,000 students in 255+ schools, sourced from local vendors and cooperatives. This city-led initiative has improved school attendance, created 16,000 jobs, and supported local food economies and women’s employment. It exemplifies how public resources can drive equitable, nutrition-focused food system transformation within planetary boundaries.

Amman: Digital Food Waste Strategy

Amman’s digital platform Ammon addresses the city’s organic waste challenge—over 534,000 tonnes annually—by using real-time data to reduce food loss. The platform connects restaurants, retailers, charities, and consumers to enable food donations, map food banks, and share leftover-based recipes. With organic waste making up half the city’s total waste, Ammon supports emission reduction, food redistribution, and sustainable consumption. The platform promotes collaboration across sectors, empowering citizens and businesses to tackle food waste and protect public health.

Austin: Food Plan

A regional food plan that aims to bring together individuals, organisations, and local governments to reflect diverse values, perspectives, and needs, and to foster a healthy, equitable, economically thriving, and environmentally regenerative food system.

Birmingham: Promotion of Protein Transition

Birmingham’s Food Strategy prioritises sustainable, healthy diets. The ‘Full of Beans’ campaign encourages plant-based eating through local schools, engaging 70+ institutions across sectors. By integrating food education, procurement shifts, and public engagement, the city is embedding climate-smart nutrition into everyday life—demonstrating how local campaigns can shift food culture systemically.

Cape Town: Smiley Market Infrastructure Upgrade

Cape Town’s Smiley Market in Langa is a cultural hub where women vendors sell traditional Xhosa dishes. With support from AfriFOODLinks, traders co-designed upgrades to improve hygiene, water access, waste management, and space for cooking and customers. The process respected long-standing informal market dynamics. As of May 2025, a framework co-developed with city officials is being finalised. The redesign balances cultural traditions with better infrastructure, ensuring more dignified conditions for traders and customers alike.

Copenhagen: Planetary Health Diet in Public Meals

In 2019, Copenhagen committed to reducing food-related emissions from public institutions by 25% by 2025. By 2024, the city already met this goal, cutting emissions from 70,000 daily public meals by over 25%. Meat is now served only once every two months in schools, with portion sizes reduced from 80g to 30g. A major success factor has been the training of 3,750 chefs and kitchen staff through Madliv, a consultancy managing the Food Schools programme. The city supports these efforts with diplomas, celebrations, and a 1,000-recipe book to promote healthy, sustainable, and appealing food.

Curitiba: Urban and peri-urban food governance (Pro-Metropóle)

A public-interest, non-profit governance initiative launched in 2017 that pioneers integrated urban and peri-urban food governance by convening municipal, state, and federal actors alongside civil society, academia, and the private sector. Its goals include building a metropolitan common market, enhancing regional cohesion through shared infrastructure and policies, and embedding cross-sector coordination across urban planning, agriculture, mobility, and food security. Pro‐Metrópole also supports small businesses and family farmers, while ensuring inclusive, participatory governance focused on sustainability, climate resilience, and equitable food systems.

Kisumu: School Meal Programme

Kisumu provides daily school meals to over 35,000 students, sourcing fresh produce from local farmers. The county government co-invests with communities, boosting nutrition, attendance, and farmer livelihoods. This integrated model strengthens local food systems while tackling child hunger—proving the power of city-led, nutrition-sensitive procurement in secondary cities.

Liège: Food Governance

Liège created the Liège Food-Land Belt, mobilising over 400 food system actors, and in 2022 launched the Conseil Politique de l’Alimentation, a 120-member participatory food policy council. This body guides local procurement, school cafeterias, and public kitchens toward sustainable, seasonal, and locally sourced food. Through six working groups and procurement reform, over 11,000 daily meals are now climate-smart. Liège’s democratic, multi-stakeholder governance shows how mid-sized cities can lead in building just and low-carbon food systems.

London: Transport for London Junk Food Advertising Ban

Since 2019, Transport for London (TfL) has banned advertising of high-fat, sugar, and salt foods across its public transport network, with an aim to reduce child obesity. Only healthy food promotions are allowed. With 30 million daily journeys, TfL’s advertising space is a powerful messaging platform. A 2022 study by the University of Sheffield and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found the policy prevented up to 100,000 obesity cases and is expected to save the National Health Service over £200 million. This shows how regulation of public advertising can support public health goals.

Los Angeles: Healthy Soils Program

Los Angeles incorporates healthy soil goals into its Green New Deal and has developed a citywide strategy through LA Sanitation and Environment. The plan supports urban agriculture, carbon sequestration, water conservation, and biodiversity through regenerative practices. It includes incentive exploration, public education campaigns, and demonstration projects. These efforts aim to protect and restore soil health, making the city’s food systems more sustainable and climate-resilient.

Milan: Food Waste Hubs

Milan’s Food Waste Hubs, launched in 2019, aim to cut food waste in half by 2030. Each hub collects surplus food from supermarkets and canteens and redistributes it through NGOs. With three hubs operating citywide, Milan recovers 130 tonnes of food per hub annually—equal to about 260,000 meals. The initiative involves public agencies, charities, universities, and businesses, making Milan a pioneer in coordinated citywide food waste recovery.

New York City: Food Standards

In 2008, New York City established the NYC Food Standards, which are evidence-based nutrition criteria required to be met for all food purchased and served by the City, and aim to reduce prevalence of chronic disease while combating structural inequities that obstruct opportunities for access to healthy food. There are multiple sets of Standards that address different settings where food is served. The NYC Food Standards for Meals and Snacks Purchased and Served (Meal Standards) apply to over 200 million meals served annually at schools, hospitals, jails, older adult centres, shelters, and childcare settings. They are reviewed and updated at least every 3 years, allowing for incremental policy changes while supporting feasibility and buy-in, resulting in a high level of compliance with the Meal Standards. By implementing the Meal Standards, NYC has achieved a 29% decrease in total food-related greenhouse gas emissions since fiscal year 2019, with a goal of a 33% reduction by 2030. The NYC Food Standards for Cafeterias and Cafes are adopted by over 40 NYC hospitals that are committed to implementing climate-friendly food services while creating a healthy food environment for staff, patients, and visitors. The Standards cover a variety of techniques to increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables, plant protein and whole grain options, promote healthy advertising, and to limit beef, processed meat, sodium, saturated fat, and added sugars.

New York City: Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge

NYC launched the Plant-Powered Carbon Challenge in 2023 to reduce emissions in the private food sector. The voluntary initiative invites food service providers to cut emissions by 25% by 2030 through dietary shifts, not just waste or packaging changes. Participants report emissions annually and receive support from Greener by Default, an implementation partner providing menu audits, training, and planning. By 2024, 20 organisations—including the US Open, Aramark, the Rockefeller Foundation, JPMorgan Chase and Columbia University—had joined. The challenge is one leading strategy in NYC to promote a 25% reduction in institutional food-related emissions by 2030. Read the full story here.

New York City: Shop Healthy NYC

Launched in 2012, the Shop Healthy NYC program works with food retailers, suppliers, community residents and community-based organisations to increase equitable access to nutrient-dense foods in under-resourced neighbourhoods. Working with communities that experience high rates of diet-related diseases, the program offers hands-on technical assistance, marketing materials, and product placement support. Participating stores that sustain healthy food criteria in alignment with the NYC Food Standards, are awarded a citation of merit from the City. By improving store environments and increasing access to healthy food options, Shop Healthy builds capacity with small businesses while addressing health disparities exacerbated by structural racism.

Paris: Sustainable Food Plans

Paris delivers 30 million meals across schools, social services and public institutions annually and raised sustainable food use from 8% to 53% in a decade through two Sustainable Food Plans. Its third plan (adopted in 2022) aims for 75% organic and 50% local food by 2027 — linking procurement reform, protein diversification, and local supply to food system transformation. The city launched AgriParis to connect caterers with regional producers and support this transition, bringing together 21 food service operators.

Portoviejo: Systemic Food Approach

Portoviejo’s School Feeding Programme (Ecuador) serves 42,688 students across 95 schools with fresh fruit sourced from local family-owned producers. The initiative supports healthy diets and strengthens local food systems. Beyond schools, Portoviejo has developed 200 urban gardens and four agroecological community spaces. These offer training in sustainable farming and nutrition, fostering food security and resilience. By integrating education, production, and procurement, Portoviejo’s food system approach links child nutrition with community empowerment and sustainable development.

Quezon: Joy of Urban Farming

Quezon City’s Joy of Urban Farming (JOUF) program promotes food security and livelihoods by equipping residents with farming skills and materials. The city provides seeds, tools, training, and greenhouse facilities, reaching over 43,000 active farmers across 1,439 urban farms in 2025. Some farms now use biodigesters to convert organic waste into biogas and compost. Implemented with the Department of Agriculture, JOUF links sustainable food production with circular economy practices and community empowerment.

Rosario: Land Access in Peri-Urban Areas

Rosario’s Urban Agriculture Programme (PAU) has converted 75 hectares of abandoned land into agroecological Parques Huerta, involving nearly 300 urban farmers (65% women) and benefiting over 2,400 families since 2002. Producing around 2,500 tonnes of fresh produce annually, the program supplies local markets and school meals while cutting food miles by 95%. The 2015 Green Belt Ordinance protects 800 hectares of peri-urban farmland under organic transition, supporting climate resilience and job creation. Rosario’s model integrates land access, local food systems, and urban sustainability.

São Paulo: Support Peri-Urban Farmers in SAMPA+RURAL

The Sampa+Rural initiative supports marginalised peri-urban farmers in São Paulo with training, market access, and land use support. Sampa (short name for São Paulo) + Rural is a farmer support initiative aimed at promoting agroecological production and increasing access to healthy foods in São Paulo. It was scaled citywide in 2020 and now supports 536 rural properties. Coordinated by the city’s Agriculture Secretariat, it aligns with São Paulo’s Climate Action and Agroecology Plans. The initiative strengthens agroecological practices, curbs urban sprawl, and expands green spaces, while helping small-scale farmers meet market standards and thrive economically.

Seattle: Fresh Bucks Produce Assistance

Seattle’s Fresh Bucks program supports over 12,000 households with $40 monthly vouchers for fruits and vegetables, redeemable at 30+ markets and grocers. Created in 2012 and expanded with Sugar Sweetened Beverage Tax revenue in 2018, the programme is led by the Office of Sustainability and Environment. It prioritises equity, with 70% of participants classified as extremely low-income and many speaking languages other than English. Shoppers use a card or app for automatic discounts, making healthy food more accessible for those most burdened by food insecurity.

Seoul: Pay As You Throw Scheme

Seoul’s Pay As You Throw waste fee system, launched in 1995, significantly reduced household waste by charging based on volume. Food waste is weighed using bins with RFID technology, charging residents automatically. A 30% fee increase in 2016 further encouraged waste reduction. These measures led to a 23% reduction in total waste and 47,000 tonnes less food waste in six years. Seoul’s data-driven approach shows how pricing and tech can drive behavioural change and reduce food waste at scale. Read the full story here.

Surakarta: School Meals Programme

Surakarta launched the Child-Friendly Healthy School Canteen initiative to combat childhood obesity, now operating in 11 schools and reaching nearly 89,000 students. Based on national nutrition guidelines, the programme sets food standards, ensures safe infrastructure, and supports local, women-led food businesses. It also promotes food safety, education, and inclusion. Through the Healthy School Learning Centers now scaling the initiative, Surakarta is transforming school food environments across economic, social, and environmental dimensions.

Sydney: Multi-Stakeholder Business Engagement in FoodLab

FoodLab Sydney, launched in 2019, has incubated 72 diverse food entrepreneurs and helped launch 45 sustainable food businesses, while partnering specifically with migrants and refugees. The programme documents its social and environmental impacts and informs the city’s food strategy. Now operating as a standalone social enterprise, FoodLab is shaping a fairer and more inclusive food system in Sydney through entrepreneurship and innovation.