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Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Senior lecturer

Yuliya Voytenko Palgan

Challenges, risks and costs of food sharing. Insights from a systematic literature review

Author

  • Vera Sadovska
  • Yuliya Voytenko Palgan
  • Oksana Mont

Summary, in English

Current food systems are unsustainable, exacerbating environmental and socio-economic challenges. With 80 % of food consumed in cities, transforming urban food systems is vital. Urban food sharing initiatives (FSIs), which involve collective acts of growing, cooking, eating, and redistributing food, offer a promising alternative in sustainable urban transformations. However, FSIs often struggle to develop and scale. Academic literature has not adequately examined the factors hindering FSIs' establishment, operation, and scaling up. This study fills this gap through a systematic literature review of 55 articles, providing a comprehensive analysis of the challenges, risks, and costs faced by FSIs. It identifies six categories of challenges and risks each, as well as seven categories of costs. The study proposes nine mitigation strategies to address these issues and emphasises the need for a more detailed breakdown of costs and investments across different phases of FSI development. Additionally, it highlights the importance of support from governments, policymakers, health authorities, retailers, and charity organisations. The transformative potential of FSIs in addressing inefficiencies in current food systems is also underscored, alongside the need for a deeper understanding of the multi-dimensional challenges they face. The findings are particularly valuable for urban FSIs seeking to develop their practices, build capacity, and contribute to more resilient and sustainable urban food systems.

Department/s

  • The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics

Publishing year

2026-01

Language

English

Publication/Series

Journal of Cleaner Production

Volume

538

Document type

Journal article review

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Environmental Studies in Social Sciences
  • Food Science (including Product Quality)
  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • Food sharing
  • urban food systems
  • Food commons
  • challenges
  • risks
  • costs
  • investments

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0959-6526