Bar and restaurant wholesale supply giant METRO Cash & Carry is launching new solidarity projects, true to the path toward Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) started in 2011. As part of the SIRHA hospitality and catering fair (26-30.1.2019 in Lyon), METRO France announced a project to support social and environmental value creation initiatives. The initiative involves associations, citizens and businesses in a rich menu of projects ranging from healthy and sustainable food, at home and in restaurants, to agricultural fields. The operation-all concentrated in France-unfolds in three pillars.
The meal that unites
Pillar One contemplates the promotion of projects to create or strengthen the social bonding typical of mealtime. The characterizing elements are the inclusion of people in need, the fusion of different cultures, and the dissemination of education aimed at good food practices.
There are two projects funded in this area
-
The culinary workshops of La Tablée des Chefs
, association for universal access to a healthy and balanced diet and the development of food independence, are aimed at children housed in family homes. The goal is to provide children with the knowledge about nutrition normally passed on by family, grandparents and parents. Grocery shopping, cooking, and correctly combining foods is what they will learn under the guidance of professional chefs. All notions that will have to be part of the baggage when the children leave the sheltered facility when they turn 18. METRO’s support will enable the workshops to be held in several French cities. -
RADIS
,
Anti Gaspi Double Impact Social Restoration
(Anti-waste catering with double social impact) is the project of the association
A Table Citoyen
. The goal is the preparation of quality meals at reduced costs, employing unsold food from METRO and other partner distributors, thus also combating the food waste to which food close to expiration would be destined. Targeted by the initiative are people supported by the Emmaüs Defi Association, who will also be able to learn professionally useful notions about catering and logistics. METRO’s contribution is on the project feasibility study, which is essential to create a social joint venture.
On the side of young French gastronomes
The Second Pillar is dedicated to the protection of French gastronomic heritage through the promotion of creativity and know-how, in which all useful knowledge converges: from the proper handling of MOCAs to cordiality in table service. And through projects dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of regional and local agri-food products, small productions and inherent initiatives, useful to enhance the territories of origin. In this area, METRO is funding the
Rabelais Young Talents
, a competition dedicated to young professionals (ages 17 to 26) from 11 operating areas (restaurants, bakeries, bakeries, delicatessens, butcher shops and others).
The Third Pillar is aimed at virtuous change. Both that of the individual consumer, who through food consumption decides his or her own environmental impact, and that of agribusiness producers, whose evolution towards sustainability is the basis for a now imperative turnaround. Two projects are selected in this area.
The creation of the
Good Planet School
, a 400 m2 space dedicated to food education, agriculture, ecology and solidarity. The new facility will be funded by METRO and will be built at the foundation’s headquarters
Good Planet
,
https://www.goodplanet.org/fr/
already engaged in weekend educational activities for schools and families, as well as environmental protection activities abroad. A 65 m2 teaching kitchen is planned where visitors can cook and practice what they have learned in the
workshops
on sustainable food and in debates on consumer habits.
Farmers of the Future
is the competition created by Fermes d’Avenir to reward (financially) virtuous initiatives to change agricultural practices. The initiative is divided into several sections. METRO’s contribution is entirely in the Reconversion category, to help conventional farms transition to sustainable production methods, organic first and foremost.
Professional journalist since January 1995, he has worked for newspapers (Il Messaggero, Paese Sera, La Stampa) and periodicals (NumeroUno, Il Salvagente). She is the author of journalistic surveys on food, she has published the book "Reading labels to know what we eat".
