Making Social Gastronomy the Norm in Brazil & beyond

The Social Innovation

Magnitude of the Problem, and its Root Causes

While the hospitality industry in Brazil (and beyond) is growing exponentially and creating millions of jobs, it is becoming more and more profit driven and even contributes to a growing gap between rich and poor. While over 811 million people go hungry, still ​one-third of food produced is wasted.

During their participation in the Globalizer co-created by Ashoka, Hystra and Swiss Development Corporation in 2017, they highlighted the following key factors contributing to the magnitude of the problem:    

• Socially excluded people have less access to training due to prohibitive cost, leading to reduced opportunities for social mobility.
• Those living in exclusion also have reduced access to nutritious food, as well as employment, perpetuating a cycle of poor health, lack of dignity, and poverty.
• Hospitality, and restaurant employers, require even lower level staff to have basic training, social skills and understanding of the sector.
• Although employers may want to help, they lack the knowledge of what socially excluded people need, and how to best help them (lack of dialogue).
• Overall, there is a lack of tools, frameworks and guidelines for using the sector to help and do good, while fulfilling business requirements.

Based on their systems change analysis, Gastromotiva made it their mission to make social gastronomy the norm in the hospitality industry as a recognized way to reduce poverty, hunger & malnutrition by developing the field of social gastronomy in Brazil and beyond.

Strategy to Catalyze a Network of Changemakers towards the Targeted Mission

The strategy involved going beyond their own model to create this global platform where food actors and organizations prototyping just and inclusive food systems can come together and collaborate toward collective impact versus individual impact.

Some of the tactics they deployed towards the mission as a part of the strategy include:

1) Involving Stakeholders to Replicate the Gastromotiva Model using Social Franchising

Gastromotiva is piloting a social franchise model with 50 out of the 130 solidarity kitchens. These kitchens are social businesses that provide food (free or at reasonable cost), training, education, and advocacy, aiming for self-sustainability.

The pandemic accelerated Gastromotiva’s impact, leading to the replication of their model in 130 neighborhoods across 8 states in Brazil. This has engaged over 15,000 students and led to an 80% employability rate.

5.5 million meals were distributed feeding 3.5 million people, saving 350 tons of food from getting waste. 

The Gastromotiva model is also being replicated in East Timor, where the Social Entrepreneur of the year was Simone Assis. She is leading a social gastronomy enterprise (restaurant, cafe, chocolate factory and more) and running 16 solidarity kitchens around the country.

Biggest achievement for me to see social gastronomy becoming a norm

2) Co-creating the Social Gastronomy Movement (SGM) to Develop Guiding Principles and Inspiring a Movement around Social Gastronomy

Along with expanding the Gastromotiva model - a broader impact network idea emerged. Social gastronomy change-makers around the world connecting, exchanging best practices, encouraging open-source replication, and forging collaborations and partnerships. This evolution gave birth to the Social Gastronomy Movement.

​Nicky described,

David had long dreamed of such a community, 

The idea in 2018 was simple but ambitious: host a summit to gather changemakers from around the world who were using food as a tool for social change and create a space for genuine collaboration. This would include chefs, social entrepreneurs, business leaders, government officials, and academics.

The original plan was to have 10 founding members, each putting in $1,000, and we’d co-create this together. We brought in tons of other people and went out with a lot of invitations, hoping for a few confirmations. And almost everyone confirmed, so we ended up in the first co-creation group with 60 people.

For about two years, Gastromotiva “incubated” the Social Gastronomy Movement, acting as its backbone organization. This allowed SGM to grow roots, and naturally brought up creative tensions around identity, governance, and funding. In early 2020, SGM was formally spun out as an independent foundation in Switzerland. Gastromotiva became one of many organizations within the SGM umbrella. This allowed SGM to “fly free,” grow, and attract its own funding and leadership.

Between the backbone team and members of the Network, they have:

• 400+ Members and local communities across 70+ countries
• convened five global summits, countless local convenings and dialogues
• established 1000+ collaborations and connections
• collectively served over 74 million+ meals
• distributed $100,000+ to local organizations in emergency response
• co-created and formalized a collective impact framework for social gastronomy
• built a knowledge hub for best practice- and knowledge sharing
• shaped and advanced the narrative and field of social gastronomy

SGM made it their mission to make social gastronomy a norm by building bridges between producers and consumers, re-establishing food sovereignty of local communities.

With the advent of covid, fighting hunger was everywhere. Governments paid restaurants to stay open so they could retain the star chefs and staff, and feed meals to people in need. This happened across Brazil, the US, Europe, and this also continued as a practice after Covid - notable examples include Eleven Madison Park - where they give away food as much as they sell.
This by itself has shown early signs of social gastronomy becoming a norm. Not necessarily through the tactics we imagined, but it’s happening! 
SGM as a brand has achieved it’s mission. 

Out of the 400 organizations, 16 organizations continue to meet once a year for peer learning and exploring synergies to further shape the field.