Project
The aim of the association is to develop food production activities as part of a social and professional integration project, with vegetables production, and the production of tree and shrub seedlings. The gardeners go through all the tasks of production and are supervised by 2 gardeners and 2 nursery technicians as professional tutors. The follow-up and the socio-professional accompaniment are ensured by a job integration manager.
The first mission of this integration project is in fact to welcome employees in insertion, under a contract for a period of up to 24 months, to remobilize them on a life project and professional project, which is not necessarily linked to agriculture, on a production area of 4 hectares of agricultural land, on 8 hectares of total cultivable surface, with also 2.7 hectares of forest in addition.
In addition, the gardens got their organic agriculture label in 1998 from the ECOCERT certification company.
The New Gardens of Solidarity works alongside the “Cocagne” network, bringing together a hundred job insertion gardens in France, in the form of a job integration project since 1995.
It thus integrates certain rules/requirements of the Cocagne Network specifications:
- have a vocation of social and professional insertion of people in difficulty
- develop an organic vegetable production
- develop the distribution of these vegetables to a network of members
- work in collaboration with the professional sector
The gardens of Cocagne 
Project leaders
Today, the team consists of:
- 8 permanent staff: Marie Patout (socio-professional accompaniment), Odile Glane and Jackis Demeuy (gardening), Max Hanzo and Geoffrey Pascalin (green space managers), and the administrative team, Carole Vinatier-Samba, Lise Berlo and Roselyne Beraud. The association also integrates volunteers per year into the project.
- 28 beneficiaries
- 300 members on average
The little extra
The structure can support up 30 beneficiaries at the same time, distributed within 2 types of activities:
- 20 employees for organic gardening, marketing and distribution
- 10 employees at the nursery / green space yard
Written by Clémence Guignard, LFC volunteer - May 2019.
Last modification : 29 Mar 2020.
The new gardens of solidarity
The New Gardens of Solidarity works alongside the “Cocagne” network, bringing together a hundred social and professional integration gardening programs in France. This NGO is recognized as being of public utility under the national label “Chantier d’insertion”.