The Community Food Fund
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Mikrofonden Sverige ek för |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 656 149 |
| Project duration | November 2025 - June 2026 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | A new recipe for the food system - build-up phase |
| Call | A new recipe for the food system: The pot of innovation - Experiment, experiment and explore |
Important results from the project
Matfonden Nära demonstrates that the barrier to local food infrastructure is neither a lack of capital nor financial products. The barrier is the ability to identify and mobilise existing resources, at the right time and with the right risk profile. The project has developed an open methodology for this, validated through four investment cases in Ulleråker. The tool-sharing service launches June 2026. Uppsala Matråd integrates the methodology into its permanent mandate via IOP funding.
Expected long term effects
In the long term, the methodology can spread nationally through food councils and the Mat till alla platform. By lowering the threshold for dialogue with municipalities, and building local investment structures that create trust, the model enables financing without external guarantees. Repeated investment cycles strengthen local food preparedness and reduce dependency on global supply chains. Food councils can become a key intermediary between local initiatives and municipalities nationally.
Approach and implementation
The project started from the hypothesis that the problem was financial. Early conversations with Gothenburg city, where a large composting project was replaced by four small machines at lower cost and higher activation rate, shifted the direction. The insight was that MVP logic, was the key.Ulleråker was chosen as test environment due to an already established dynamic between growers, farm and municipality. The methodology developed iteratively from real obstacles rather than theoretical models.