Prof Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo, Ms Liliana Gaviria, Ms Karol Viviana Cubillos Gutierrez
Funding period: 1 October 2026 – 28 February 2028
Type of funding:
Urban Urgencies
Award Number: USF-URU-260704
Partner organisations: Fundación Casa B (Colombia), Fundación Social CRECER (Colombia)
Investigators: Prof Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo, Ms Liliana Gaviria, Ms Karol Viviana Cubillos Gutierrez
Team members: Prof Thierry Lulle Bruna (Universidad Externado de Colombia), Ms Cristina Silva Rodríguez (Fundación Casa B), Mr Juan Mateo Monroy Cardona (The Lisinski Law Firm, LLC)
Contact: Prof Andrés Salcedo Fidalgo
Abstract:
The Open Kitchen: weaving protection and care for communities on the move project addresses the converging crises of food insecurity, structural poverty, and spatial segregation in the La Favorita and Belén neighbourhoods of Bogotá, Colombia. In these areas, vulnerable populations – including Venezuelan migrant women, displaced Indigenous communities, sex workers, and older adults – face a combination of overlapping vulnerabilities, the threat of gentrification, and a reliance on precarious informal labour. The objective of this project is to address the issues of hunger and inadequate nutrition by promoting food sovereignty as an inalienable urban right, thereby aiming to transform systemic vulnerability into community leadership.
Collaborating directly with Fundación Casa B and Fundación Social CRECER, the transdisciplinary research team employs participatory action research to empower marginalised women and residents as active co-creators of knowledge. The programme comprises a number of key activities, including the conducting of multisensory cartography in order to track food flows and care networks, the leadership of urban drifts, and the organisation of visits to intercultural urban gardens. The programme will include practical cooking sessions at community kitchens and subsequent roundtable discussions. Participants will share their culinary traditions, sensory memories, and food-based survival strategies.
The collaborative efforts of the project will generate highly accessible, community-driven outputs, including an interactive digital map, a multicultural cookbook, a participatory documentary, and a podcast series. In order to influence decision-makers and challenge traditional academic extraction, the project will also produce a public policy fanzine alongside peer-reviewed academic articles. This initiative ultimately establishes community kitchens and urban gardens as vital social infrastructures. It contributes a replicable, resilient model of food justice and collective care for cities in the Global South, equipping historically marginalized populations with the tools to claim their right to the city and shape urban food governance.