Background and Initial Situation
So far, it is rare for the education, research, and practice of Social Work to address the topic of food. At the same time, however, eating and cooking are part of all people’s existential life practices, they used to play an important role in the work of Social Work pioneers such as Jane Addams and Ilse Arlt, and they are essential components of everyday life in social institutions (and thus Social Work) in many ways. This is the starting point for this project which seeks to address topics of eating (and cooking) in connection with Social Work and to (further) develop and implement concrete community cooking formats.

Possible Questions
(The concrete research questions will be jointly developed in the project.)

• What is a good way of designing collaborative formats on the topic of nutrition and cooking in Social Work institutions and community projects?
• How do the people involved experience such occasions?
• How do these experiences change the relationships between the participants (e.g., service users among themselves, and between users and Social Workers)?
• How does joint cooking in social institutions / in a community context influence the involved persons’ nutrition knowledge and behaviour in terms of health and sustainability?
• … 

Objectives and Concrete Activities
This bachelor project seeks to promote the professional reflection on and further development of the nutrition topic with a special focus on eating as a cultural practice in terms of its connection to a sense of community and of belonging, external and self-determination, inclusion and contact, and health and ecology.

In light of experiences concerning the (un-)affordability of good food and the increasing consumption of convenience products and highly processed foods, further questions the project addresses pertain to food poverty, eating habits and health, and the exploration of the potentials that joint cooking (and the associated competencies) holds for promoting a healthy – and sustainable – nutrition.

In concrete cooperation projects with social organisations, community cooking formats are implemented, while nutrition-related challenges, experiences, knowledge, attitudes, and wishes are determined and the potential for change is explored at the same time.

A first community cooking event is planned as soon as this September within the framework of the cultural festival “Tangente St. Pölten”.

Research Methods
The project is realised in a collaborative action research format with representatives of organisations and of the community (the neighbourhood of the St. Pölten UAS) and involves literature research, surveys, and concrete actions.

The project may result in one or several of these products:

• Collection of recipes
• Community cooking booklet
• Exhibition on community cooking and a good diet