Local News
From Listening to Action: Fundão’s Journey Towards the FoodLab
10 April 2026
While Twin cities across the Bauhaus Bites project are kicking off their pilot actions, Trailblazer city Fundão has been working hard on implementation, and the results are starting to become visible.
Fundão’s journey began with something simple but powerful: listening. The city engaged local producers, schools, associations, businesses and community members to understand their experiences, challenges and ideas for the future of food in the territory. These conversations turned into workshops where people sat at the same table and helped shape a common vision. From this process, a local Action Plan emerged — not as a top-down document, but as something built collectively, grounded in the everyday realities of Fundão. In parallel, many local organisations have come together to form a Local Advisory Team, helping guide the process and keeping it open, collaborative and rooted in the community.
Action plan co-creation workshops
One of the most exciting developments is now taking shape: the Fundão FoodLab. Located in the Municipal Market, this space is being imagined and designed together with architecture students from the University of Beira Interior, in close collaboration with local communities and cultural mediators. From the very beginning, people from different backgrounds have been invited to take part, bringing their cultures, habits and ideas into the design process.
The FoodLab will soon take physical shape, opening the door to food literacy workshops, cooking sessions, community events and moments of exchange around food. A space where food becomes a way to connect people, celebrate diversity and create opportunities across Fundão.
Food lab co-creation with students from the University of Beira Interior and cultural mediators