New York, September 25 – The Future Food Institute has won the prestigious Global Trust Builder Award at the 2025 BEAM Awards, an initiative that celebrates organisations fostering trust, advancing climate justice, and driving global change. The award was presented during Climate Week NYC 2025 in New York.
This recognition, in the Global Impact category for “ecosystem-shifting movements from around the world,” honours the Future Food Institute and its Paideia Campus of Pollica “For building trust with culture, degrowth and location based initiatives.”
Sara Roversi, founder of the Future Food Institute, commented:
“Pollica is the capital of the Mediterranean Diet. A small territory which, through our campus, educates a thousand young people each year—the Climate Shapers—while promoting sustainable development models deeply rooted in gastrodiplomacy, integral ecology, and ocean stewardship. This award inspires us to do even more for the future of our community and the planet.”
The Paideia Campus of Pollica welcomes over 1,000 young people annually from across the globe. It trains the Climate Shapers: young leaders, educators, scientists, doctors, activists, farmers, policymakers, designers, communicators, innovators, and chefs committed to being active agents of change. Cilento—homeland of the Mediterranean Diet—serves as the setting and mentor. Here, experiential education bridges living heritage and environmental stewardship. Participants build concrete skills in land and community care, sustainable health, blue economy, integral ecology, and gastrodiplomacy. They learn to approach the climate crisis with resilience, innovation, and systemic vision. In Pollica, Climate Shapers cultivate critical thinking, witness integral ecology in practice, and pilot tangible solutions in the field. Through immersive experiences, they integrate prosperity thinking and systems thinking, preparing to become true protagonists of sustainable and innovative transformation.
This award comes in a year when the Future Food Institute is increasingly recognised as a transformative global ecosystem. Its Living Labs—from Italy to Japan and North Africa—place human development and regenerative models at the core of every mission, bridging agriculture, health, ecological transition, cultural heritage, and gastrodiplomacy. They are hubs of innovation where territories, communities, and relationships become the real drivers of a new sustainable economy.
This is the second major recognition received by the Future Food Institute this year. In April, the organization was honoured with the Costa Carras European Citizens Silver Award 2025, promoted by Europa Nostra, for the Safeguard of Endangered Heritage. This recognition highlighted the Future Food Institute’s commitment to protecting and enhancing cultural and natural heritage through ecological education practices and the creation of concrete opportunities to strengthen the bond between people and place, fostering real and sustainable change.
