The New Taipei City Government is promoting the New Taipei Surplus Food Network policy centered on “caring for the disadvantaged.” The initiative combines public and private resources to foster partnerships, leveraging a cross-agency cooperative platform that brings together the city’s Social Welfare Department, Agriculture Bureau, Education Department, Market Administration Office, and Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Company. This collaborative network rescues highly nutritious but visually imperfect produce from being discarded. These “off-grade” fruits and vegetables are redistributed and transformed into meals at community dining locations for disadvantaged families and people in need. While reducing food waste, the initiative also balances social care, environmental sustainability, and the circular economy, gradually developing a New Taipei Surplus Food Model that blends efficiency with caring. As of May 2026, the initiative has repurposed over 1.32 million kilograms of surplus food and served more than 2.86 million people since its inception in 2019, showcasing New Taipei City’s concrete achievements in promoting sustainability and social well-being.

This model, cultivated over the course of a decade, has increasingly drawn international attention. New Taipei City was recently invited by Metropolis, to join the FoodCLIC EU project as a peer partner city for Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, sharing New Taipei's practical experience in implementing its surplus food policy. Alongside Buenos Aires, representatives from Bogotá and Cartagena (Colombia), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), and Rosario (Argentina) also participated in the virtual workshop exchanges. The FoodCLIC project is dedicated to integrating healthy food systems with urban planning while promoting the exchange of research findings and urban governance experiences through online workshops, thus enabling cities to learn from one another through local practical cases and scale them globally.

During the exchange, New Taipei City raised the example of cabbage, which is frequently labeled as “off-grade” produce in local markets, to demonstrate how its public-private partnership mechanism works. Vegetables that retain their nutritional value but fall short of market standards are re-sorted and delivered to community dining locations, where they are transformed into delicious meals for disadvantaged seniors and children. This practice not only effectively reduces food waste, but also caters to the nutritional needs of vulnerable groups, allowing the spirit of saving food to take deep root in the community. New Taipei City also shared its governance experience from the grassroots level, explaining how district chiefs and village chiefs connect local resources with private sector forces to truly implement the surplus food policy in people’s daily lives. This governance model was highly praised by the Buenos Aires City Government, which noted that local governance and community mobilization remain key to driving related policies in the future. Additionally, participating cities actively raised questions on topics such as food waste composting, promotion efforts for off-grade produce, school food-saving education, and school lunch leftover management, showing a strong interest in mutual exchanges.

This international workshop fully demonstrated the vital role cities play in promoting sustainable food policies and enhancing societal resilience. It also underscored global recognition for New Taipei City’s surplus food governance achievements. In the future, New Taipei City will continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation with cities worldwide, sharing more of its experience in sustainable governance, and make surplus food sharing a warm language that connects friendship across the globe. This will allow cities to work hand-in-hand to build a more resilient and sustainable urban future.