Mission and Vision of Foodsharing Cafés in Germany

Abstract

In developed countries, large amounts of edible food are wasted at the household level, with significant negative environmental impacts. Therefore, reducing food waste is included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals. In different countries, several food-sharing initiatives have emerged to recover and redistribute surplus food. Recently, a Café concept was established offering such “rescued” food free of charge in publicly accessible locations, often complemented by beverages. Based on web research and semi-structured interviews, the current study analyzed the mission, vision, and activities of these Cafés and the main motivations of volunteers and employees. In addition to other food-sharing initiatives’ goals of raising public awareness about food waste, increasing the appreciation of food, and sharing surpluses, they seek to contribute to increased sustainability by educating citizens and sharing knowledge and skills to reduce household food waste. The Cafés also seek to offer inclusive community spaces and promote the values of solidarity and sustainability. Interviewees’ motivations match the Cafés’ missions, and many seek to achieve broader system change. Furthermore, they value the feeling of community and shared purpose through their engagement. The Cafés’ focus on education and skill building is likely to better serve the goal of reducing food waste than prior initiatives.

1. Introduction

Globally, one-third of food produced is lost or wasted, accounting for 8–10% of greenhouse gas emissions [1]. Food loss refers to the primary stages of production, including processing, packaging, and transport [2]. Food waste refers to the final product, which could have been consumed but is instead discarded, and occurs at the retail and consumption stages [3]. Reducing food loss and waste could reduce climate impacts of food production, as well as positively contribute to livelihoods and keeping the food system within environmental limits [4]. Moreover, reducing food waste is stated as a sub-target of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, namely goal #12, ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns, specifically to half per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030.

Reducing waste to a minimum is also part of the European Parliament’s strategy of accomplishing a circular economy by 2050 [5]. Despite the many assumptions underlying circular economy policies, strategies, and research [6], reducing waste in the agricultural sector and the food supply chain have largely not been put in this context by analysts (see, e.g., [7]), whilst many similar principles apply, not only regarding packaging. For example, the multi-level principle, which requires optimization at higher levels in a system to accomplish circularity goals, and the lack of practicality regarding a complete closing of the loops [8] apply even more in food systems than in industrial systems. Additionally, initiatives that are successful in reducing food waste might inspire similar approaches beyond the food system.

In developed countries, including Germany, a large amount of food that is suitable for human consumption is wasted at the retail and household levels [9]. The data for Germany show about 11 million tons of food wasted in total in 2020, of which 59% occurred in private households, and 7% occurred at the retail level [10]. The negative impacts of food produced and then wasted are not only due to the use of resources in the production and the following steps in the supply chain but also the consequences of the generation of waste and its breakdown processes in landfills [11,12]. At the retail level, it is estimated that at least one-third of unsold food is still suitable for human consumption and could be redistributed [13,14].

At the consumer level, in developed countries, food waste practices are influenced by routines regarding shopping, planning, cooking, and leftover use; sociocultural norms; and consumers’ values and lifestyles [15,16,17]. These routines have developed due to and are embedded in low food prices and consumers’ disconnection from food production, leading to a low valuation of food and a general consumerist culture [18,19]. In addition, consumers tend to underestimate their waste generation [18] and the environmental consequences of this waste generation [20,21,22]. However, even when aware of their waste generation and its consequences, consumers often lack the knowledge and skills to reduce food waste in the household [23]. Major drivers include a lack of food preservation skills, food management knowledge, knowledge regarding different types of date labeling and assessing food edibility, as well as a lack of planning skills [18,22,24,25].

1.1. Initiatives to Reduce Food Waste

Aside from government initiatives in the form of awareness campaigns targeted at consumers and mandates or tax reductions for donations or recovery at the retail level, different types of initiatives for recovery and redistribution have emerged from within civil society. Firstly, food banks and social supermarkets are non-profit organizations that collect food mostly from retailers and distribute it to people in need for free or at low prices, thereby providing a charitable service addressing food insecurity [26,27,28]. These initiatives are often criticized as not addressing the root causes of food waste but rather perpetuating them despite the environmental and social benefits of their models of operation [29,30,31]. Secondly, communal forms of food sharing, which can be facilitated by online platforms, focus on matching supply and demand in real time without requiring a demonstrated need on the demand side [32,33]. This second type includes peer-to-peer food exchange between strangers and non-commercial as well as commercial forms of food redistribution [32,34,35]. Mostly taking place via online platforms, exchanges are often limited to specific target audiences, e.g., students. Therefore, while increasing the food reuse efficiency, the root causes of food waste are, again, not typically addressed [32,33,36,37,38]. Community-based food-sharing initiatives seem to emerge as more promising in actually reducing food waste by creating local networks among diverse actors and engaging in a variety of other activities [39,40,41].

In Germany, Foodsharing (“Foodsharing” is the term used by the initiative for itself; the term is used when referring to the German initiative. “Foodsharing” is used when referring to such initiatives in a general manner) emerged as an initiative of the second type in 2012, establishing cooperations with retailers and others for the recovery and redistribution of food, also using an online platform for redistribution [42]. In addition to redistribution, Foodsharing also strives to raise awareness regarding problems of the current food system and the broader consumer culture. However, after operating for more than a decade, not much has changed, and the critique of this and similar initiatives of rather facilitating surplus food production by working as a logistics operator taking care of and depending on the production of surpluses persists [41,43]. Kölmel et al. [44] pointed out that Foodsharing itself represents a logistics innovation disseminated through digital media, while actual social innovation is transmitted through local, personal contact. Aiming to address this exact issue, Foodsharing Cafés began to emerge out of the Foodsharing initiative in several German cities, starting in 2019, with many of them still in the development phase without having settled into a location yet. These Cafés offer or plan to offer free food to everyone interested at physical locations. The food to be shared is recovered via the Foodsharing platform or through direct collaborations with local businesses and private individuals. Some Cafés only redistribute food, whereas others serve prepared meals, and they all have an accessible fridge or shelf at the premises for additional redistribution activities. While recovered food is available free of charge, beverages and other non-rescued food items may be sold, often on a pay-what-you-want basis, to cover operating costs.

1.2. Research Questions and Objectives

Foodsharing Cafés are of particular interest because (1) they have only recently begun to emerge and have not been subject to prior studies; (2) the staffing at the Cafés is made possible mostly through volunteers; and (3) the people developing these Cafés and volunteering their time seem to share ambitions of overcoming food waste in the long term and possibly share further ambitions beyond food waste. In the context of the food system’s needed transition to increased sustainability and partaking in the circular economy effort, the study seeks to (1) identify the mission, vision, and activities of Foodsharing Cafés in Germany and (2) assess the main motivations of volunteers and employees of Foodsharing Cafés.

In the context of the first objective, the study investigates whether Foodsharing Cafés’ missions seek to address and overcome consumers’ misperceptions of the amount of food waste created by individual households and make consumers more aware of the consequences of their behavior. Moreover, the study determines whether Foodsharing Cafés’ mission, vision, and activities are likely to address the gap in consumer knowledge and skills regarding food management and waste avoidance. Lastly, the study analyzes whether the Foodsharing Cafés’ activities are more likely than prior initiatives to address the root causes of food waste and overcome their challenges due to the community-based approach and the local and personal interactions.

In the context of the second objective, the study investigates whether the motivations of participants are driven solely by the Foodsharing Cafés’ main mission or whether further relevant aspects contribute to their decision to engage. Motivation needs to be considered, because Foodsharing Cafés not only depend on volunteers to function, but their motivation influences their interactions on a personal level.

2. Theory and the State of the Art

Civic engagement and volunteering are often used as synonyms, since both refer to providing a service to the larger community and represent forms of social action [45,46]. Volunteering is considered an activity for the benefit of another person, group, or cause [47]. While unpaid, volunteering is categorized as “work” as opposed to a leisure activity [48].

2.1. Volunteerism versus Activism

Motivation for volunteering can be based on altruism as well as egoistic drives [46]. Such engagement, which does not directly influence people in power, can be considered “pre-political”, i.e., a latent form of political engagement or activism [46]. Alternatively, such activities can also be considered political, because through collectively demonstrating and spreading an alternative way of handling societal problems, they contribute to establishing new collective norms [49]. Alternative forms of consumption and provisioning constitute an indirect critique of existing practices, an inspiration for change, and may lead to the emergence of new norms, values, and practices [50]. Often starting as local, informal interactions, through creating social networks and relationships in communities, such activities can develop into social movements [51].

Thus, the distinction between volunteerism and activism needs to be challenged in the food system context, as it has been challenged by more general recent work [52]. A main distinction may be that activists see themselves as system challengers, taking more of a stance of dissent, whereas volunteers are more system fitting, taking more of a consensual stance [53,54]. With an increasing number of hybrid initiatives combining elements of volunteerism and activism, both concepts have become blurred [55]. Whether civic engagement is political depends, amongst others, on the goals, convictions, and relationships of the actors involved [56]. In that regard, the people engaged in Foodsharing Cafés can be compared to prior studies of food-sharing initiatives but are different from initiatives aimed at charitable giving, e.g., food banks.

2.2. Prior Studies of Food-Sharing Activities

Several studies have analyzed the Foodsharing platform from which the Cafés have emerged in Germany as well as in Austria [42,57,58,59]. These studies agreed that participants seek to reduce food waste and increase appreciation of food, in addition to satisfying their own needs. Engagement tended to persist if participants believed in their collective efficacy [59]. Beyond the direct goals, participation typically amounted to a form of activism, albeit differing regarding the extent of change sought. The participants’ goals regarding societal change tended to be constrained by the private context of Foodsharing through the platform and not reach a broader public [42,58,59].

Food-sharing initiatives, including food-sharing cafés, were also studied in the United Kingdom [41,60,61], Italy [39,40,62], the Netherlands [63,64], Poland [65], and Denmark [66]. It must be assumed that more such initiatives exist and that some of them have already been studied. For the current article, only research published in international journals in English by September 2023 could be included. Several studies identified the creation of inclusive communities across social differences as an outcome of sharing food and eating together (commensality), thereby reducing the social distance between volunteers and beneficiaries while also destigmatizing the acceptance of shared food as being only for poor people [61,62,63,64,65,66]. The goals of scaling up redistribution and changing the food system to more sustainable forms of production and consumption were identified in several studies [39,40,41,60,63,64,66] but were also perceived as conflicting, at least in parts, challenging the initiatives’ visions for the future (see, e.g., [63,64] for the case of a food-sharing café in the Netherlands, which struggled extensively with these conflicts).

3. Methods

Given that this seems to be the first study of German Foodsharing Cafés, and with their model being somewhat different from initiatives in neighboring countries such as in the Netherlands and Poland, a qualitative research approach was deemed appropriate [67]. As a first step, all Café initiatives were identified, independent of their stage in the founding process through both the Foodsharing Café Network (https://www.foodsharingcafe.net/), which was founded early during the research period, and a further Google search to identify potential initiatives outside of the Network. As of August 2023, three functioning Cafés with regular opening hours (Raupe Immersatt: https://www.raupeimmersatt.de/; Café Cosmo: https://www.cafecosmo.org/; Café Übrig: https://xn--brig-zra.org/), one Café operating two days a week on external premises (Foodsharing Café Freiburg: https://www.foodsharing-cafe-freiburg.de/), and five Café initiatives in founding could be identified (Essbar Berlin: https://essbar-berlin.org/; Krumm and Schepp: https://krumm-schepp.de/; Café Mehrrettich: https://www.mehrrettich.de/; Futter Teresa: https://www.futter-teresa.de/; Fairwertbar: https://www.fairwertbar-jena.de/), throughout Germany. Publicly available data on all nine were collected, including website information, news articles, and social media posts (websites and social media accounts were last accessed on 22 October 2023). Next, similarities and potential differences among the Cafés were identified based on the publicly available data. An initial profile of each Café describing its stated goals and activities was compiled.

After the Foodsharing Café Network was founded, uniting the public face of these initiatives through a common website with a mission statement, all initiatives identified became part of the Network. The Network website then served as the basis for defining Foodsharing Cafés in the current study but was complemented with the additional data collected from each individual Café’s website.

3.1. Interview Design and Participant Descriptions

In addition to publicly available data, empirical materials were obtained through qualitative, semi-structured interviews with founders, board members, volunteers, and paid employees. Only participants who were active members of the initiatives for at least six months were considered for the interviews. Potential interviewees were identified through publicly posted email addresses, contact forms, LinkedIn, Instagram, and subsequent snowball sampling, asking for individuals with different roles and potentially different opinions. Sampling was continued until saturation, meaning additional interviews did not lead to new themes or insights, which was achieved after 16 interviewees, many of them serving in their Cafés in multiple capacities.

Semi-structured interviews were chosen for data collection, because they allowed for flexibility and adaptability while maintaining the focus on the predetermined main topics and allowing follow-up questions to capture the emerging issues [68]. The interviewer consciously familiarized herself with the challenges of interview research (see, e.g., [69]) to maintain the interviews’ open and in-depth character. The interview guide was developed based on the research questions, the review of the literature on food-sharing initiatives, and the analysis of publicly available data on each Café initiative. The main predetermined topics covered in the interview guide included the roles and involvements of the interviewees in the Café; the perception of food waste, the Café as a solution, and the interviewees’ goals regarding broader potential impacts; the purpose of the Café and interviewees’ prioritized activities and the role of the physical space; motivations for founding or working at the Café; goals regarding the direct influence on politics and legislation; expectations and goals for the future of the Café; and challenges and other experiences at the Café. Informed consent was obtained ahead of each interview. All interviews were conducted by the first author and carried out between the end of July and the beginning of September 2023. The interviews lasted between 54 and 100 min. They were conducted mostly online via Zoom, with two interviews conducted in person. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. The age of the interviewees ranged from mid-20s to 42; 11 interviewees were female, and 5 were male. While one interviewee was paid for delivering workshops but also volunteered in other capacities, four were paid employees. The others, except one, had full- or part-time jobs outside of the Cafés. The interviewees’ time investments in the Cafés varied between two and forty hours per week.

3.2. Data Analysis and Limitations

The data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis, identifying key themes and patterns across the interview transcripts without employing a preconceived coding scheme [70], using the software “ATLAS.ti 23.2.2” (https://atlasti.com) to ensure a systematic approach. The code is the smallest unit of meaning, addressing the research questions in the data [71]. The codes were then grouped into themes and sub-themes, which were redefined and validated through an iterative process comparing within and among interviews until the final version stabilized when data saturation was reached [72,73]. The analysis was supported by using the software’s network function to visualize the relationships among the codes, as well as memo writing throughout the analysis [73].

Since interviewees participated voluntarily, a selection bias might have occurred if only the more active members of the initiatives chose to make themselves available for interviews. While responding, a social desirability bias might have occurred by interviewees choosing answers they perceived as socially acceptable. An agency bias might have occurred by interviewees presenting themselves as protagonists, and the simple fact that actions and words might differ [74]. Given that most interviewees were board members and/or founders of the Foodsharing Cafés and often served in additional capacities, it can be expected that they strove to present their Café as accurately and truthfully as possible. Another potential limitation of the study is the fact that five Cafés did not yet have a location and were, therefore, articulating their vision and expectations for the future, not their current lifeworld. Finally, the authors are not aware of Foodsharing Cafés outside of the Foodsharing Café network. However, such Cafés may exist and may have different perspectives. The latter might also apply to future Foodsharing Café initiatives and Café initiatives that were started during the study, because this is an active and growing community.

4. Results

The results are presented in three parts: (1) the mission and activities of Foodsharing Cafés identified from the Network’s website, Cafés’ websites, and social media posts; (2) the more differentiated aspects of the mission of the Cafés shared during the interviews and the interviewees’ vision for the future of the Cafés; and (3) the interviewees’ motivations to engage in the Cafés and perceived obstacles and challenges.

4.1. Published Mission and Activities of Foodsharing Cafés

Under the heading “vision”, the mission of the Cafés was described as (1) the sensitization of local citizens and politicians for the appreciation of food and the reduction of food waste, (2) the strengthening of social cohesion and solidarity, and (3) legislative changes to curb food waste on the Foodsharing Café Network’s website. The accompanying value statements focused on the sharing of food free of cost, the cooperation with the Foodsharing platform and with local actors, conducting business for the common good, and joint learning and inspiration through events, communication, creating room for encounters, and contributing to changing the legal framework. Overall, they aim to provide low-threshold access to the food-sharing community.

The websites of the individual Cafés did not mention the political ambition of changing legislation but focused on raising awareness and reducing food waste. However, on their websites and in social media posts, the Cafés shared many additional activities in the context of communication and education, promoting sustainable nutrition in the community and other sustainability-related issues. The educational activities included sharing recipes online, organizing chopping parties for joint cooking, visiting schools, and offering lectures and workshops at their premises on topics ranging from food preservation, fermentation, sustainable nutrition, and veganism to permaculture. Activities beyond addressing food waste included cultivating vertical herb gardens and community gardens, lectures and workshops on sustainable development and “rethinking the economy”, organizing clothing and plant swap events, and repair workshops. Moreover, the Cafés with physical locations offered their premises for various social and cultural events, for example, art exhibits, concerts, and poetry slams.

4.2. Interviewees’ Perceptions of Foodsharing Cafés’ Mission and Their Vision for the Future

While most interviewees considered food waste to be a systemic issue with the responsibility shared across the value chain, they also saw consumers as co-responsible. Hence, all interviewees saw the primary mission of the Cafés as changing private households’ food behavior and habits. Although the Cafés were often described as a central place for food redistribution and a complement to the Foodsharing platform, the redistribution of surplus from retailers and others at the premises was not considered the main mission; instead, it was the raising of awareness for the issue in the midst of society through the act of redistribution and related activities. Considering the large amount of food wasted at the household level, several interviewees explicitly pointed to sensitizing and education as the main lever for change.

“The main problem is actually food waste at home. I can’t even get there with Foodsharing itself. […] in the masses, it’s the consumers at home where much, much more happens in percentage terms. And reaching them is damn difficult. And, I believe that we are definitely on the right track with the cafés, and we are on the right track with the educational work”

(Interviewee #5).

In addition to providing or planning to provide further information at their premises, all Cafés offered lectures and workshops, and seven Cafés regularly visited or invited school classes. In general, interviewees believed in the value of early education to raise awareness and change behaviors regarding food. Even the Cafés that were still in the founding process all offered external workshops. Furthermore, most interviewees mentioned that they planned to devote more time and resources to educational activities in the future. They also supplemented the general education on food waste with solution-oriented offers, such as cooking with leftovers, preparing preserves, and fermenting food, helping participants transform intentions into action. Accordingly, while not stated at the Network level, education represents an important part of each Café’s mission. A permanent Café location was seen as paramount to allow for facts and numbers on food waste to be transformed into a tangible experience and increase the visibility of the problem. All interviewees perceived the casual and non-proselytizing atmosphere as another key to the success of the educational mission, inviting self-reflection and reducing resistance and opposition to behavior changes.

“We’re trying a completely different approach. We’re trying to do this emotional thing: people like to be in the café; they spend time there; they associate it with good, positive emotions. […] it’s actually about inspiring, and raising awareness and somehow taking people on board, so that they might also want to learn how to deal with food and maybe do things differently as a result”

(Interviewee #6).

“The most important thing is definitely the educational work, including, for example, workshops and activities that we do. The classic chopping parties, but also perhaps cooking with school classes at some point, and starting the educational work early on”

(Interviewee #13).

4.2.1. Promoting Solidarity and Sustainability

In addition, most interviewees alluded to a community mission in promoting solidarity and sustainability beyond food waste reduction. All Cafés had or planned to have no obligation to consume and a solidarity payment model for beverages. Their mission was to provide an inclusive space for all, regardless of social status. The solidarity model of the individual Cafés reaches beyond the free food sharing the Network promotes. Many interviewees referred to the variety of people, from the homeless to the wealthy, interacting and talking with each other. As part of their mission, the Cafés enable everyone to take advantage of their educational, social, and cultural offers, which also reach beyond the stated Network mission. Moreover, interviewees from all Cafés emphasized that they wanted to offer a space for networking and creativity for sustainable change as well as thematically fitting projects beyond food and food waste. Interviewees from six Cafés also mentioned that they wanted to offer their premises to other sustainability-related initiatives. In a similar vein, some interviewees wanted to also share other consumer goods such as books, lend out tools, and organize events for swapping clothes or plants. The broader sustainability orientation of the Cafés constitutes another addition to the Network’s stated mission.

“It’s really nice to simply bring everyone together. That this concept of solidarity is somehow open to the entire society, so that everyone can go there”

(Interviewee #4).

“In a nutshell, I would say a place for encounters and sustainability, an open space for everyone. So, everyone should feel welcome, no matter what kind of income you have, no matter what kind of background you have. And yes, just like […] a kind of living room, where everyone just feels comfortable, and […] really gets to talk, because communication is also just so important”

(Interviewee #12).

“A place that offers cultural events on the topic, that makes it possible to have poetry slams, film screenings, theater performances, music, art, everything that somehow fits into the area of sustainability. […]. […] limit food waste, but also, in general, on the topic of consumption, sustainability, food appreciation”

(Interviewee #1).

4.2.2. Promoting “Gentle” Change

In addition to promoting the concepts of repair and reuse, several interviewees saw the Cafés as promoting more general change in society in terms of working together in flat hierarchies and offering fair working conditions, moving away from profit orientation, and rethinking the economy, moving away from consumerism and capitalism. While not all interviewees were explicit about this aspect, the interviewees engaged in a form of “soft” and “gentle” activism through their participation in the Cafés, inspiring change by creating positive emotions and social consensus. Given that all interviewees agreed that legislative changes alone would not solve the food waste problem, most of them saw a political change as a desirable side effect rather than as central to the mission of the Cafés, which is different from the stated mission of the Network. For now, most interviewees saw their political influence as only indirect or had not even thought about this aspect. Still, a majority perceived engaging in food (waste) politics as a potential long-term goal.

“Well, we want that, so if it all works out, there will be an open repair shop in the room, and this should make it possible for the repair café to hold more frequent events […]. And that maybe there is also a pool of tools that you can borrow, that not everyone has to have […] a drill at home or something, things like that. So, that this sharing of things, the repair of things, the transport with a cargo bike, that we just show so hey, so it is somehow also possible, and somehow one does not need everything new, one does not need everything in abundance”

(Interviewee #7).

“It’s all very soft, very gentle, very loving. We try to attract people, not aggressively in any way, to inform them, to wake them up, more in a subtle way”

(Interviewee #3).

4.2.3. The Future as an Open Pathway

Overall, many interviewees shared that they did not have a clear vision or expectations for the future. Currently, they rather focused on further developing the Cafés without settling on a concrete vision. Many framed the future as an open pathway, leaving room for and anticipating unexpected changes. Most interviewees perceived the complete elimination of food waste as utopian and not realistic, while still putting it forth as a desirable goal for the Cafés. When asked about the consequences of a stark reduction in food waste for the Cafés, most interviewees assumed that the Cafés would continue to exist, offering education, including on broader ecological and social topics, and diversified sustainability-related activities at a communal location. Some imagined that they could source food and beverages through more direct cooperation with farmers and retailers or through their own gardens. Given that the individual Cafés’ missions were perceived as much broader than the stated Network mission by the interviewees, a vision for after the elimination of food waste available for redistribution was moving to other sustainability events, education workshops, and further social and cultural events, amounting to transitioning into Sustainability Cafés or Community Cafés and demonstrating and promoting an alternative economic model.

“I don’t just see it as a food-sharing hub. But also, as a sharing place, where at the same time education takes place on all kinds of topics, culture takes place”

(Interviewee #5).

“But the basic principle of this solidarity café with a lot of education, that this remains and simply spreads. That the basic understanding of the world of work and business in a café like this is changing and spreading, that you don’t have to run something like this with the idea that it will generate a lot of profit, but that you can simply make it good for everyone”

(Interviewee #4).

“That this simply becomes a place where we as a society somehow see the future; how we actually want to deal with each other, and with our planet”

(Interviewee #1).

4.3. Interviewees’ Motivations to Engage in Foodsharing Cafés and Perceived Challenges

Unexpectedly, no differences were found between volunteers and interviewees who received remuneration for their time. The personal motivations of the interviewees to engage matched the primary mission of the Cafés: to actively contribute to reducing food waste. Some interviewees who had been involved with Foodsharing or “containering” (taking discarded food from waste containers) before believed they would have more impact by raising awareness and influencing behavioral changes through their engagement in the Cafés. Many interviewees emphasized their wish to share their knowledge with others. The wish for change extended beyond food waste for many interviewees, wanting to contribute to promoting sustainability and system change more generally.

“Actually, I think what happens in the Café is much more intriguing [than simply using the Foodsharing platform], because it’s not just about saving and consuming and distributing, but also about rolling out the topic a bit more broadly”

(Interviewee #15).

“I think this topic is important because so much food is still wasted somehow. And especially when you’re in contact with people who are also new to Foodsharing, you realize that the knowledge is simply not there. […] people cannot imagine what dimensions it has. And that’s what motivated me to do something about it and to inform people about it”

(Interviewee #16).

“So personally, it feels very powerful in any case, and like such a radical change. Something that really gets under your skin and can change the whole, the way you live. […] we actually already have the new culture here that we would like to see in the world”

(Interviewee #3).

4.3.1. Participants’ Motivations

Interviewees from six Cafés talked about the respectful, democratic way of interactions at the Café as motivating, which, for some, stood in contrast to their regular jobs. The feeling of community and the team spirit were also strong motivators. Interviewees from five Cafés specifically talked about working towards the same cause as a group and identifying with similar values as motivators. Some interviewees mentioned the strengthening of their sustainability convictions through interactions with others of similar mindsets. Hence, contributing to the Cafés’ projects gave several interviewees a sense of purpose, and they received positive feedback regarding their contributions. Several interviewees wanted to get away from time and financial pressures and performance-oriented work. Additional benefits of working at a Café were meeting new people and enriching their social network, as mentioned by almost all interviewees. Finally, the interviewees reflected on enjoying the work itself and different specific aspects, such as educating others and motivating others to reflect on the problem of food waste. Many interviewees also saw their involvement at the Café as self-development and an opportunity to acquire new knowledge.

“First and foremost, I think it’s the togetherness, the warm cooperation. These are all wonderful people who want to get involved for a good cause. And the thing that unites us is that we care deeply about the production of food and the cultivation and appreciation of this work. And we see the problem that a lot of what is produced is thrown away, which is absolutely unnecessary and a huge waste of resources. And we’ve found a way to prevent that, and that’s what unites us”

(Interviewee #11).

“Actually, it has become the new normal for me to work like this, and I find it very, very difficult in my professional work. For example, hierarchical behavior […], I find that very, very difficult to endure”

(Interviewee #3).

4.3.2. Perceived Obstacles and Challenges

The challenges mentioned by many interviewees focused on the limited number of fellow volunteers to accomplish all their goals, the time it takes to find a location and set up a Café, as well as a lack of financial resources. Financial resources are needed to pay for the location and to set up a Café. Furthermore, most interviewees saw the need to remunerate those who offer educational workshops, and several interviewees believed that the people doing the work should be paid. The money could come from subsidies, e.g., from municipalities or sponsors and from beverage sales. Therefore, despite a strong wish to stay outside of traditional economic pursuits, sufficient money is still required to pursue the activities and achieve the goals. Finally, while interviewees reported on a positive attitude of local public authorities towards the Cafés, they still complained about bureaucratic requirements and hurdles and wished for more financial support.

“That’s why it was super important for us, through design, through professionalism in dealing with guests, etc., to get this topic out of the bubble. And that’s why it was also a step to say that we’ll make paid work out of it. This will not be an unpaid volunteer job, and we are not a colorful bunch of hippies who run this place, but we are serious and are simply building a functioning organization here”

(Interviewee #6).

5. Discussion and Conclusions

Similar to prior research on the German Foodsharing platform and community [42,57,58,59] and on food sharing in general [39,41,66], Foodsharing Cafés’ mission includes the redistribution of rescued food and promoting increased appreciation of food. However, the mission of educating both adults as well as school children was much more central in the current study, with some Cafés even paying their members to carry out educational work and offer external workshops. While some prior studies identified raising awareness on food waste [57,59,66] and the promotion of food sharing [40,60] as activities, only Lombardi & Constantino [40] found educational activities at schools. Because children are likely to share what they learned at home [75], such activities can contribute beyond changing children’s behavior to changes at the household level and, as a result, broader societal changes.

The Café board members, volunteers, and employees interviewed showed awareness that food waste cannot be reduced to zero, and therefore, a fully circular economy will not be possible in the realm of food systems, a challenge also faced by other production systems (see also [8]). Still, their motivation to engage is partly based on their contributions to increased sustainability and circularity through waste reduction. However, they also want to contribute to these goals beyond waste reduction in other ways. In addition, accomplishing different ways of working, community, and living together was featured prominently in most participants’ motivation.

5.1. Implications of Foodsharing Cafés’ Expanded Mission

As the Cafés focus their awareness-raising and educational activities not only on the surplus production at the retail level but also on household food waste, they are indeed likely to have a higher impact, because prior research found consumers underestimating their waste quantities and environmental consequences [18,20,21,22]. Mourad [76] also concluded that consumer education on food waste can impact cultural and social expectations and, ultimately, business practices and regulations. In addition, consumer demands regarding freshness, aesthetic criteria, diversity, and availability contribute to food waste earlier in the supply chain [77].

By offering education on food management practices to consumers in addition to general information on food waste amounts and their impacts, the Cafés have integrated educational activities, which were suggested in prior research for reducing waste in households [18,78]. The skills targeted include recognizing food edibility, cooking preserves, and demonstrating alternative uses. Since improvements in perceived skills were shown to lead to behavior changes of consumers regarding food waste [17,79], the Cafés’ activities seem likely to contribute to achieving their set goals. Furthermore, low-threshold access to education and a positive atmosphere are more likely to inspire consumers to reduce food waste than blaming consumer behavior does [25], as was also found in prior studies in different contexts [80,81,82].

The creation of inclusive communities was also found in prior studies of food-sharing initiatives and cash-free cafés (e.g., [64,65]). However, upon closer analysis, these studies often described the feeling of community among active participants of the initiatives or during food-sharing events. At the Foodsharing Cafés, the provision of beverages through a solidarity payment model in addition to free food allows anyone to come in and enjoy a café experience and leads to more visitors and different social interactions among different types of visitors. In addition, the public sharing of food normalizes donating and receiving food [62,83,84]; thereby, the Cafés contribute to lowering barriers to sharing food, potentially also motivating wealthier visitors to engage in food sharing.

Since Foodsharing Cafés were described by several interviewees as introducing an alternative economic model, they showed similarities to a food-sharing café model analyzed in prior studies [63,64] as well as a cash-free café model [65], which did not, however, focus on sharing or reducing food waste. These cafés all had the promotion of socially inclusive, “non-capitalist” spaces as a focus. Different from these previously studied cafés, Foodsharing Cafés actively promote or plan to promote sustainable lifestyles by demonstrating alternative business practices, offering workshops and lectures on a range of sustainability topics and the exchange of other items, such as clothes and books, and they also organize cultural events, such as art exhibits, concerts, and poetry slams for free.

The Cafés’ non-capitalist stance is somewhat hampered by the need for money to pay the rent, provide funds for educational activities, and especially the wish to remunerate volunteer employees in the future. Unlike other food-sharing initiatives, the Cafés run a business operation, i.e., even alternative businesses operate within the current economic system. The Cafés do, however, neither fully fit with social business models (see, e.g., the five lessons for formulating social business models by Yunus et al. [85], based on the Grameen bank experience) nor with conventional, profit-oriented business models. Especially combining social and environmental causes, both types of models coexist (see, e.g., [86] for German businesses created in the context of food waste and their founders’ differing motivations). Considering the expanded mission of the Cafés compared to prior initiatives, the highly localized but at the same time nationally integrated approach, and the strong motivations of board members, volunteers, and paid employees for broader change, the Cafés seem to indeed be on the way to creating a new and different business model despite their challenges.

5.2. Suggestions for Expansion of Reach

Revisiting the theoretical distinction between volunteers and activists, interviewees were clearly motivated by a desire for change regarding the food waste situation and also regarding broader sustainability topics. However, different from findings by Berns et al. [66], the Foodsharing Cafés’ interviewees hardly referred to themselves as activists despite aiming to make others rethink their food consumption and lifestyles. While the lines between volunteering and activism are blurred in Foodsharing Cafés, the analysis showed a more prominent role of activist motivations compared to general volunteering or helping individuals. The latter, e.g., providing food to people in need, was not mentioned as a motivation by a single interviewee. Thus, the Cafés represent a form of “quiet activism” [87,88] due to their capacity to critique and challenge the status quo by establishing new collective norms through their everyday practices.

In conclusion, while their name seems to reduce the Cafés to spaces for food sharing, their mission and vision reach far beyond that regarding short-term as well as long-term aspirations (Figure 1). Given the breadth of the Cafés’ and the interviewees’ goals, they need to consider expanding the stated mission on the Network’s website accordingly. This step might help with recruiting more volunteers, customers, sponsors, and even subsidies, and, in addition, encourage more initiatives in different cities to get started by people whose primary interests lie beyond food sharing. Communicating the image of open and tolerant spaces to a broader public also needs to be pursued beyond the websites of the Cafés and their Network to ensure that people from different social backgrounds feel welcome. The latter will also further serve the educational mission, attracting people from outside the Foodsharing community who are not yet knowledgeable about food waste and sustainability.

5.3. Suggestions for Future Research

This study has looked at the information provided by the Foodsharing Network and published by the Cafés themselves as well as interviews with founders, board members, and others currently actively engaged at Foodsharing Cafés. While the interviewees were not chosen based on representativeness but rather based on the information they could provide, they are likely to have truthfully portrayed their Cafés. However, the Cafés will continue to develop, and as more and different people join and new Cafés are founded, their mission may change. Future studies may, therefore, analyze these potential developments and changes.

The current study did not involve customers, citizens in local communities, and participants in formal educational activities, nor did it evaluate the Cafés’ impacts on broader societal changes. From these limitations, several fruitful topics for future research can be developed. For example, customers could be surveyed regarding their backgrounds to analyze whether the perceived variety of social groups and reach beyond the Foodsharing community is actually accomplished, as well as to determine customers’ reasons for visiting and their perceptions of the Cafés. Participants in educational activities, such as lectures and workshops, could be surveyed after some time has passed to evaluate whether these activities had a lasting impact on their behavior. The local communities could be surveyed to analyze how wide the awareness of the Cafés and their mission actually was disseminated, especially considering the broader sustainability goals beyond the reduction of food waste. A follow-up study could also analyze if the activist aspects of the Cafés’ mission came to fruition and inspired any wider changes in the surrounding communities.