Recipes without Borders: Migration, Culture, and the Transformation of Food

Recipes Without Borders is a small-scale Erasmus+ KA210 YOU partnership that explores food as a cultural lens for understanding migration and intercultural interaction among young people. Food embodies historical, religious, and cultural elements, shaping and being shaped by lifestyle, traditions, and local factors. The project uses food as a symbolic and accessible tool to engage youth in learning about cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, and social cohesion, directly addressing Erasmus+ Youth priorities of inclusion and diversity, digital transformation, and active participation.
Through experiential learning, digital storytelling, and collaborative workshops, the project will empower young people to become active researchers in their communities, documenting food narratives across generations. These narratives will reveal how migration transforms food practices and, through them, cultural identities. Young participants will develop key competences in intercultural communication, digital literacy, and participatory research while exploring themes of belonging, identity, and European values.
The project places young people at the centre of the research process, fostering youth-led inquiry, peer learning, and cross-cultural exchange. By engaging with diverse food traditions and migration stories, participants will develop cultural awareness, open-mindedness, and critical thinking skills essential for personal growth and active European citizenship. All project results will be developed collaboratively with youth participants and made available as open educational resources, ensuring long-term accessibility and impact for youth workers, educators, and young people across Europe and Türkiye.

Project Duration: 12 months
Project Budget: 60.000 EUR

The Recipes Without Borders project aims to engage young people in exploring migration and cultural interaction through the universal medium of food, while developing their intercultural competences and fostering open-mindedness.
Specifically, the project objectives are:
• To develop a comparative understanding among young people of how migration and cultural interaction shape everyday food practices across generations and communities, encouraging them to reflect on their own cultural identities and those of others.
• To empower youth as active researchers, enabling them to document food narratives, migration stories, and cultural traditions through participatory methods and digital tools, building their confidence and research skills.
• To foster intercultural encounters and mutual understanding among young people from different backgrounds, using food as a bridge to explore both differences and commonalities in cultural traditions.
• To enhance digital literacy and storytelling skills of young participants through the creation of digital oral histories and multimedia content, preparing them for a digitally connected world.
• To promote cultural development and open-mindedness by engaging young people in exploring how diversity enriches communities and broadens personal perspectives.
• To strengthen the capacity of youth organizations to address cultural diversity, inclusion, and intercultural learning in their work with young people.
• To build sustainable transnational partnerships for future cooperation among youth organizations across Europe and Türkiye.

EXPECTED RESULTS/OUTPUTS

The Recipes Without Borders project will deliver a set of tangible, high-quality results developed collaboratively with young people and designed for lasting impact in the youth sector. All outputs will be available as open educational resources in multiple languages, ensuring accessibility for youth workers, educators, and young people across Europe and Türkiye.
A Youth-Led Transnational Report will document how migration and cultural interaction shape food practices across generations. Co-authored by young researchers and youth workers from all partner countries, this evidence-based report will provide valuable insights into cultural identity, intergenerational change, and intercultural dialogue, offering recommendations for youth work practice and policy development.
An Open-Access Digital Archive will host a minimum of 20 video-recorded oral histories, along with recipes, photographs, and narratives collected by young people through intergenerational interviews. This multimedia platform will preserve and showcase migration stories and cultural traditions, serving as an enduring educational resource for youth organizations, schools, and community groups working on intercultural learning.
A Collaborative Youth Curriculum will be developed jointly by young participants and youth workers, consisting of flexible, non-formal learning modules exploring food, cultural identity, migration, and intercultural communication. The curriculum will be adaptable for youth exchanges, training courses, and local youth group activities across different contexts.
A series of Youth Workshops will be implemented in each partner country, reaching at least 20 young people across the partnership. These participatory workshops will develop participants' intercultural awareness, digital storytelling skills, and critical thinking, creating safe spaces for dialogue and peer learning.
A Digital Toolkit for Youth Workers will provide adaptable activities, facilitation guides, and practical tools for addressing themes of cultural diversity, migration, and social inclusion in youth work. Translated into all partner languages, this resource will equip youth workers with innovative methodologies for engaging young people in intercultural learning and supporting their cultural development.
Finally, Multiplier Events will be organized in each partner country to present project results to local youth stakeholders, policymakers, and youth organizations. Co-facilitated by young participants, these events will ensure wide dissemination and foster engagement with target audiences at local, national, and European levels.
All project results will be shared through the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform and relevant youth networks, maximizing visibility and ensuring long-term accessibility beyond the project duration.