Mayya
Husseini

I am a public health nutritionist and trained chef turned sustainable food advocate. My passion for social impact, real good food and community power has seen me play many roles from an academic researcher to event organiser and communications specialist. Together, these experiences have shaped me into the social catalyst that I have become today. Connecting the dots and grounding ideas are the main ingredients I bring to the table in order to cook up collective action for good.

PROJECT

SFD is a community-lead campaign that launched in November 2018 as a weeklong programme to celebrate, promote and connect local sustainable food and drink initiatives. By curating and co-creating free and paid events and activities around the city, SFD brings together everyone and anyone interested in sustainable food helping them discover all the delicious and different ways they change their eating habits for the better.

After a successful first edition featuring more than 30 events including over 35 different local organisations, we returned a second edition in June 2019 with even greater traction. These two campaigns paved the way for the organic development of the SFD community that just keeps growing! In light of the current pandemic, we are working to translate our predominately offline campaign to an online one that brings SFD Action Kits on specific sustainable food themes to people’s homes where behaviour change has the greatest potential for lasting impact. Our dynamic, female-majority team is made up of experienced chefs, academics and project managers united in their passion for inspiring positive change. Starting in Lisbon, our long-term vision is to help other cities create their own SFD communities and connect them for supportive global exchange.

As an active member in the sustainable food community, I noticed that the impact of all the great initiatives I’d meet was limited to their own niche. Due to the epic nature of food systems change, it’s impossible to look beyond one’s scope of action, which isolates the momentum of any one project. I felt something that connects and celebrates everyone’s efforts while inviting the public to actively engage with whichever topic that most interested them and begin their own personal journey of food behaviour change was missing. The idea to create exactly that hit me in the shower.

MOTIVATION FOR AND COMMITMENT TO CREATING A BETTER AND MORE SUSTAINABLE PLANET

Food is at the centre of our very existence and a major stakeholder in sustainability. In our globalised world with a fast growing population, out-dated agricultural practices, inefficient supply chains and poor waste management are costing us the wellbeing of our home planet and our own selves. Given the current climate, our only option is to radically transform our ways. I’ve made the personal choice to focus my efforts on bringing as many people on board this most delicious mission to act better and it’s an honour to get to do so with the amazing SFD team!

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