France Grenoble
Food production
Loss and waste
Social and Economic Equity

The solidarity cannery of the National Interest Market (MIN) of Grenoble Alpes Métropole : a social and anti-waste project

Private

The solidarity cannery

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Context

The Grenoble-Alpes Métropole National Interest Market (MIN) is a place of exchange between producers and restaurateurs / caterers / wholesalers. It was created in 1963. Located in the city center, this MIN produces 120 tonnes of product waste per day.

Project

Fruit and vegetables disqualified by the MIN are canned by employees who are in a professional integration scheme. They are in charge of sorting, handling, processing and selling.

Harvested day by day, the products are stored in a cold room installed on the shared parking lot of the MIN. This cold room is co-rented with food aid associations and it allows the cannery to manage volumes. Indeed, certain raw products which can be consumed immediately are directly distributed to associations.

The products processed by the cannery (spreads, soups, ready meals, jams, chutneys, etc.) are sold in solidarity grocery stores in the Grenoble area: Eléfàn, Episol, Locavore, La Bonne Pioche, etc.

Project leaders

Created on the initiative of a Business Club to which the MIN belongs, this project came about following the meeting of common law companies (including the MIN) and the Grouping of Integration Companies (GEI) with the Régie de Quartier Villeneuve and the ESAT (Work assistance establishment and service) Pré-Clou restaurant managing production:

  • the GEI (Groupement des Entreprises d'Insertion) which mobilized several of its member SIAEs (Fruity Tree, Adams-Adfe, Repérages and Régie de Quartier Villeneuve-VO) and its Business Club, with in the first place the MIN of Grenoble, which annually throws away nearly 150 tonnes of disqualified fruit and vegetables.
  • Episol: solidarity grocery store
  • the Food Bank which carries out the "3 stars solidarity" action

The project also benefits from the support of the J'aime Boc'oh association, which is carrying out a similar project in a neighboring agglomeration.

Similarly, the mobile and united cannery of Romans-sur-Isère, in the Drôme, also promotes good eating at an affordable price, reducing food waste, and reclaiming the know-how of canning. Concretely, the association collects food from producers in rural areas and transforms it in villages and neighborhoods promoting social ties. The jars and cans produced are distributed to local families who frequent social centers and who can thus orient their food budgets differently.

This project is the initiative of three Drôme neighborhood centers who have come together to form a "cooperation", a means of amplifying local actions and cohesion in the actions carried out.

The Little Extra

Through this system, 80 - 90% of the MIN's waste is reprocessed, which represents significant economies of scale since waste management is paid to the service provider in the amount of 70-80 euros per ton. It also helps develop business skills in the food industry for people in reintegration. Finally, this project also has a social objective: 20% of the processed products are sold at cost price.

Written by Flora Douheret, LFC volunteer - October 2018.

Last modification : 13 May 2020.

The solidarity cannery

117-127 rue des Alliés 38030 Grenoble Cedex 2

The solidarity cannery project consists of promoting fruit and vegetables that are disqualified as artisanal canned food in the service of job creation in integration.

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