Youth Food Power(matmakt):

Strengthening Young Voices in Food Systems

The Youth Food Power project works to close the “transformation gap” in local food systems by empowering young people to actively shape the food environments around them. Our goal is to strengthen the capacity of youth, civil society, and public institutions to collaboratively manage and improve local food environments.

The project explores young people’s everyday experiences, behaviors, and values related to food, generating new insights into how food environments influence their choices and opportunities. Using citizen science approaches, young people collect and interpret data about their own food settings—such as schools, neighborhoods, and retail spaces—and engage directly with retailers, policymakers, and other stakeholders to co-design realistic and sustainable improvements.

By partnering with local institutions, organizations, and businesses, Youth Food Power aims to strengthen youth agency and contribute to healthier, more inclusive, and more equitable food environments.

  • This is a Forte funded project (2026-2029), with Helle Mölsted Alvesson as the PI, Karolinska Institutet. It is a collaborative project with Uppsala University (Meena Daivadanam) and Arbisense AB (FE4H CoRE members), Uppsala Municipality, and Public & Research Sweden.

Call for Papers: BMC Public Health Collection on Food Environments and Health Equity

A new special collection in BMC Public Health titled Promoting Equity in Health through Food Environment Actions is now open for submissions. The collection will run for nine months, with the possibility of a three-month extension.

The collection is guest edited by Jane Battersby, Meena Daivadanam, and David Guwatudde, and welcomes high-quality manuscripts that advance understanding of how food environment actions can promote health equity.

Authors are invited to submit their work to the collection. Please note that manuscripts authored or co-authored by any of the guest editors may comprise no more than 25% of the total collection. If you are interested in submitting a manuscript that includes one or more of the guest editors as authors, please inform the guest editors in advance so the journal can be notified accordingly. Manuscripts without guest editor involvement are not subject to this limitation.

To ensure transparency and integrity in the review process, any submissions where authors have a conflict of interest with a guest editor will be handled by a non-conflicted guest editor or by another journal editor.

Further details about the collection, including submission guidelines, are available here:
https://link.springer.com/collections/fhjedjifjd

Webinar recording from the 12th February 2026

The cluster of research excellence in food environment for promotion of Health in collaboration with Reformaten and Ghana food movement held a webinar on the 12th February 2026, bringing together researchers from diverse backgrounds to explore issues around food environment and health.

Here is the link from the webinar: (12) Shaping Food Environments – from Accra to Stockholm | Webinar recording – YouTube

Upcoming webinar: 12 February 2026.

Reformaten , Ghana food movements and FE4H CoRE will host a webinar on the 12th February 2026 titled:Shaping food environments from Accra to Stockholm.

Unhealthy diets are now a leading risk factor for premature mortality in both Sweden and Ghana, while food systems also contribute significantly to environmental pressures worldwide. Transforming food environments requires evidence-based research that can be adapted to diverse local contexts.

This webinar brings together leading researchers and practitioners from Accra to Stockholm to explore food environments, youth perspectives, and the political economy of the food industry. The programme includes insights from the Political Economy Analysis of the Food Industry (PEAFI) project, focusing on adolescents’ lived experiences of food environments in Tamale, Ghana.

Webinar participants

  • Dr Christopher J Turner, University of Greenwich
  • Dr Fiorella Picchioni, University of Bristol 
  • Aimée Wallin Co-Director, Ghana Food Movement, 
  • Olga Grönvall Lund, founder and secretary general, Reformaten
  • Jecinta Atieno Okumu, Research Coordinator at the Forum for Africa Studies, Uppsala University
  • 📅 When: 12 February, from 13:00 to 15:00 CET (12:00–14:00 GMT, Ghana time).
  • 📍 Where: Online (link is sent after registration)
  • 🎟   Registration page: