On 22 October 2026, the Belize Food Heritage Project reached another milestone by opening its Community Workshop in San Pedro Town, the project’s seventh and final district-level training, organized by the Institute for Social and Cultural Research of the National Institute of Culture and History. More than 15 participants joined the session in order to learn about the project, its significance, and how the community can continue documenting and inventorying the Caye’s living heritage.
The 2-year project ultimately aims to create a comprehensive inventory of Belize’s diverse food heritage, which faces threats from globalization, urbanization, and climate change. The project, funded through UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Fund, has sought to strengthen the capacity of stakeholders to document and safeguard key elements of ICH, focusing on foodways as they embody the stories, knowledge, practices, and identities of Belize’s diverse cultural communities.
As part of the project, training workshops were organized centered on capacity-building in ICH safeguarding and documentation related to food, conducted at the national and district levels to identify linkages to livelihoods and sustainable development, including existing and potential threats. Participants, who are expected to work on the inventorying exercise as well, have been empowered to record and celebrate their food heritage, ensuring that this knowledge continues to be shared.
Just like music and art, gastronomy is an important cultural heritage. It represents the cultural identity of a people by embracing their culinary traditions. The Belize Food Heritage Project offers a valuable opportunity to connect community-led safeguarding in the Caribbean with wider international knowledge-sharing, particularly on food heritage, climate change, disaster resilience and intergenerational transmission.
