When we created the Raimat Lleida Community Foundation almost 3 years ago, we knew that the agrifood sector would be central to our work. In Lleida, Spain, agriculture is more than a sector, it is identity, culture, knowledge and community. It is the foundation on which the future of the territory depends.
Lleida Alimenta began in July 2024, when we invited companies, researchers, public administration and social organisations to the Castell de Raymat. The goal was to look at the future of Lleida’s agrifood system together. We ended that first meeting sharing a paella made with rice and vegetables from Lleida’s orchards, a moment that revealed what this movement could become: a space where people connect around land, purpose and possibility.
In September 2025, we signed a public–private agreement with the Diputació de Lleida and created a joint Technical Office, a governance model that brings the administration and our foundation together. This partnership allows us to co-design systemic projects with coherence and territorial legitimacy. Our role as a community foundation is to act as a catalyst, generating trust, connecting actors and holding the long-term vision of the territory.
In November, alongside the Agenda Compartida “Lleida, Terra d’Oportunitats”, we co-organised the 1st Lleida Alimenta Innovation Camp, bringing together around 80 key actors from across the value chain. Together, we worked on four strategic challenges: regenerative agriculture, high-value agrifood transformation, circular bioeconomy, and the link between gastronomy, landscape and conscious tourism.
The outcome was powerful. Participants identified the main obstacles and opportunities and proposed 35 systemic actions to guide Lleida’s agrifood transformation, from regenerative pilots and new financing mechanisms to knowledge-transfer structures and shared infrastructures.
But the most important result was not a list of actions, it was the confirmation of a sector that was once fragmented now shares a common narrative and a collective intention to move forward together.
Lleida Alimenta is becoming new civic infrastructure for the territory, a platform where public institutions, companies and the community work systemically to shape a more resilient, regenerative and hopeful future.
