SFOFY – Street Food Opportunities for Youth

Street Food Opportunities for Youth (SFOFY) was inspired by and exploited a successful experience of a previous project on the same subject in which most of the partners were involved together. It is also inspired by the needs of the target groups and by the trend towards street food that is not new to some of the partner countries whereas it is undergoing drastic improvement in others. It is also inspired by the experience of most of the partners’ cooperation together in other projects mostly in the area of youth entrepreneurship, work with disadvantaged groups and training content design.  Needs of the target groups identified in the project proposal are those of two groups of young people aged 18-30:

• young unemployed people (NEETS), with an interest in food and a wish to develop their skills and
• young underemployed students / graduates who are underusing their talents. They lack the entrepreneurial skillset which would enable them to grow their business and fulfill their potential.

 This Communication Strategy will seek to engage a wider audience since the benefits and results generated by the project can and may cater for the needs of a wider audience including:

• anyone who has already started up his street food business this without any training and possibly in an improvised manner or having entered the business following exposure in previous experience,
• anyone who has been in the business for some time but may see potential benefit in following training that may help one start a process of validation of experience, unlearn, modernize, improve quality and change genre following a revisiting of the product and service,
• groups of young people who share an interest in specific genres of food that can lend itself well to street food and are trendy like vegetarian, vegan, healthy and natural foods or areas of culinary experience like fusion or ethnic cuisines and
• groups that see street food as a potential platform for social integration, emancipation and engagement of vulnerable groups like under privileged youths, migrants, persons with special learning, physical or psychological barriers.