Circular Cities, Secure Food: Preparing Food Systems for Disruption Extreme weather, geopolitical tensions, cyberattacks or disruptions to global supply chains can quickly affect how food reaches our cities. Food security depends on many interconnected factors: functioning infrastructure and logistics, regional capacities, reliable supply chains and the ability of different actors to work together when established systems come under pressure. So, what does it take to make food systems resilient? On 29 October 2026, the co-do lab invites business, retail, city, agriculture, politics, research and civil society actors to the Circular Cities, Secure Food – Partnerships for Resilient Food Systems in Times of Crisis, taking place at Gut Einern in Wuppertal, Germany and online. The interactive half-day event, held as part of Circular Week 2026, will offer a space to explore one central question: How can cities, businesses and civil society work together to build circular food infrastructures that help secure food supply in times of crisis? Different perspectives, one food system “Resilient food systems depend on many actors, often working in very different parts of the system. Bringing these perspectives together is key to this event.”, Daniela Chaves, co-do lab Core Team Member. Key questions: What do consumers and communities need from a resilient food system? What are retailers and food businesses already doing to strengthen their supply chains? Which conditions can policy and cities create? And where could closer collaboration make a difference? Confirmed speakers include: Consumer and civil society perspective: Jonas Grauel, Verbraucherzentrale NRW – bringing insights from the joint position paper “Gute, gesunde Lebensmittel und Ernährung für alle in NRW”, developed together with the Food Policy Councils of North Rhine-Westphalia Political perspective: Dr. Ophelia Nick – contributing her perspective on the political conditions needed to strengthen the resilience of our food systems. Further speakers from cities, food businesses and retail will be announced soon. Building on these impulses, the participants will move into moderated exchanges around three interconnected areas: Supply and supply chains: Which risks, dependencies and interfaces need more attention? Regional structures and circularity: What role can regional production, urban farming, allotments, biomass and local value creation play? Partnerships and preparedness: Which relationships, communication channels and structures should already be in place when established supply systems are disrupted? “We can learn a lot from nature about what makes systems resilient. Diversity plays a key role – and with diversity comes the need for collaboration. We need to understand the ecosystem we are part of: who we need to talk to, what others can contribute and which relationships we should build before we depend on them. With Circular Cities, Secure Food, we want to bring these different actors together, learn from each other and explore where we can strengthen the system together.”, highlights Daniela. How resilient is your organisation? To get the conversation started ahead of the event on 29 October, we are developing a simple Food Resilience Compass. With just a few questions, organisations can reflect on how they currently approach food resilience. The Compass provides a quick snapshot and highlights areas with potential for further exploration. The aggregated perspectives will also give us a valuable starting point for the conversations on 29 October. Event: Circular Cities, Secure Food Date: 29 October 2026 Time: 10:00-13:30 Place: Gut Einern, Wuppertal and online Language: German Cost: Free of charge Register now for the event and get the Food Resilience Compass as a warm-up for you and your organisation! For further questions, please contact Daniela Chaves.