Call for Participants - Taste the Change: Sustainable Food Transition in Eastern Europe
We are happy to open the call for participants for the International Activity TASTE THE CHANGE: The Sustainable Food Transition in Eastern Europe is open!
The activity will take place from 23-26 September, Brașov, Romania.
The Taste the Change training programme aims to strengthen the organisational and advocacy capacity of youth-led and civil society organisations in Eastern Europe to engage in advancing sustainable and more plant-forward food systems in their municipalities, regions and countries.
This will be reached by meeting the following objectives:
Increasing knowledge of food systems as a practical, accessible dimension of the green transition and its relation to climate change, sustainable policies, and environmental democracy.
Strengthening participants' organisational, policymaking and advocacy capacities in relation to food systems and green transition.
Understanding the local and regional contexts, barriers, and opportunities for implementing sustainable policies in Eastern Europe.
Support of participants in developing and implementing a realistic local action plan (e.g. awareness raising activity, advocacy campaign, dialogue with municipality).
The Taste the Change programme consists of this activity, two smaller follow-up international events, an online course and micro-grants (see more details below). Participants will be strongly encouraged to take part in the other parts of the training programme.
We are looking for 18 participants of the event. Apply if:
You are young person aged 16-35 from from any of the eligible countries* .
You are interested in the topic of food systems, just transition, and environmental democracy.
You are willing to follow-up…
Participants who are active in their local communities and youth organisations, as well as those interested in beginning their activist or political journeys are highly encouraged to apply.
We encourage applications reflecting diversity in all forms; therefore, we welcome applications from those who identify as women, LGBT+ people, people of colour, with migration background, with a different ability, or with any other disadvantaged backgrounds.
The draft agenda of the activity.
Please note that the arrival day is 22.09, and departure day 27.09.
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The training programme will focus on food systems as a practical and accessible dimension of green transition, with particular attention to plant-based transition, where relevant.
The implementation of the plant-based food systems in the Eastern European cultural, political, and economic context. Culturally, meat and animal-based products are often traditional to many Eastern European countries, and the alternatives either do not exist or are less local (eg, vegan burgers). Politically, the region has a low level of trust in political institutions and often low political participation. Economically, many Eastern European countries face structural challenges, such as low incomes, limited public subsidies to environmentally-friendly businesses, or depopulation in rural areas. Hence, the food transition process risks alienating communities and being considered as externally imposed agendas. Even a small change in the direction of sustainable food systems, such as a meatless day in school canteens, needs to be consulted with people and ensure that no one is left behind. Therefore, transition policies need to prioritise inclusive dialogue, engagement of society or transparent communication.
Across Eastern Europe, many youth and civic organisations are motivated to engage in climate and sustainability issues, yet they lack theoretical knowledge about the basis and awareness about the links to other areas. The policy area is also lacking in a broader context in the advocacy of Green parties in the region. While many parties in the region originate from pro-ecological movements and climate and environmental issues have played important roles in their activities in recent years (eg, protests against proposed Jadar mining in Serbia), the topic of food transition is missing in their advocacy.
Hence, food transition is necessarily linked with environmental democracy. Besides the topical knowledge, participants will get the skills necessary to work with citizens, politicians and civil society, and to implement community-engaging actions and create sustainable policies possible to implement in the regional and local contexts, which will be useful in every area of their work.
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Taste the Change is the one-year programme realised with the support of Green Forum Foundation. Besides the main activity, the Taste the Change programme will consist of:
- Online Course consisting of 8 lessons increasing the theoretical knowledge of participants, and bringing other dimensions of food transition (such as vegan-friendly places in Eastern Europe, etc.)
IMPORTANT: Participants will be required to complete three lessons in an online course before the event, which will provide the necessary theoretical background and facilitate the achievement of the project's learning outcomes.
- Two follow-up activities:
Environmental Democracy Workshop (14-15.11.2026 in Poland, location TBC) focusing on counter- and alternative narratives (CAN), participatory and deliberative democracy methods, and designing awareness-raising initiatives.
Policy Writing Workshop (24-25.01.2027 in Zagreb, Croatia, location and dates TBC) focusing on creating and implementing sustainable food policies on the local and national levels.
IMPORTANT: Participants will be strongly encouraged to take part in one of the follow-up activities. In the application form, you will be asked whether you are willing to take part in one of them - this is not final decision nor the selection criteria, but will help the project team in planning further activities.
- Micro-grants (200 EUR, one-time) for participants to start implementing their local activities, granted upon completion of 5 online lessons.
Practicalities:
The main language of this activity will be English. Nonetheless, not being comfortable interacting in English should not prevent you from applying, majority of us at the event will be non-native speakers and the group will be able to help out if there is some term you might not know!
The full cost of working materials, travel costs, visa and lodging (accommodation, food, and refreshments) during the event will be covered by the CDN.
For selection of travel means we encourage participants to combine the most economic and environmentally friendly way (lowest price + travel time + CO2 emissions). Upon acceptance, you will receive our Financial and travel guide.
DEADLINE for submitting online applications is 26 July, 23:59 CEST. You will be informed about the results by email approximately two weeks after the deadline. Note that you will have 3 days to confirm your participation by replying to the email, so be sure to check for emails and respond. Should we not receive confirmation from your side, your participation will be automatically cancelled.
You will be informed about the results by email approximately two weeks after the deadline.
Please add programme.manager@cdnee.org to your contacts, so that you do not receive our reply in the spam folder.
Below is the link to the Application Form. Please read the instructions on the form carefully!
There is an option for you to answer some questions in the video format, so make sure to check the application some time before you plan to submit responses.
Note on AI use: If you plan to use AI to assist your application writing, we strongly encourage you NOT to generate the text that you will copy and paste into the application or read out while filming. We don’t oppose the use of AI as a supportive tool, but we do advocate for fair and smart use of AI, as per our Keeping Green Values in the Age of AI Resolution.
*Eligible countries are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Serbia, Türkiye, and Ukraine.
The Taste the Change programme is organised with the support of Green Forum Sweden.
