Pot Up: Social and Circular Product Innovation in a Jar

The Pot Up project combines circular product innovation with social impact. Through a series of co-creative workshops, Pot Up unites the food expertise of different vulnerable groups in the city. The project simultaneously creates new opportunities for them, keeps intangible heritage alive and helps to shape the cities' food strategy.

Through the Pot Up project, the city of Ostend and the EIT Food aim to bring sustainable, local food stories into a jar. Each Pot Up product is the result of a co-creation process between a newcomer and someone with roots in Ostend. Together they create a regional product based on local ingredients, their own cultural or culinary accents and creative storage techniques.

Each product tells the story of different people and thus different cultures and tastes. Stories about memories of specific meals and ways of eating, but also about how food is processed, about storage techniques or cooking with leftovers. The city of Ostend wants to preserve this rich heritage by keeping it alive.

Ostend and EIT Food organize a series of workshops to facilitate product creation. The series will conclude with the launch of a new regional product line that connects new and well-known Ostend stories, based on a participatory approach. The project will also include local chefs, schools and other partners.