Our Challenge

Combating food poverty by exploring new sustainable ways of food distribution: 

• How we can combat/reduce the stigma of food poverty by implementing sustainable alternatives and new local circuits in order to distribute recovered food?
• How should we distribute this food among citizens, taking into account vulnerable people?

The challenge is to discover new ways of transforming usual redistribution of food (food banks) in order to dignify food access and promote social cohesion, by leading local projects to reduce food waste.

At the same time, our challenge is to ensure that we have logistical and technological mechanisms and circuits that allow planning, collecting, distributing, monitoring and guaranteeing the traceability of food from the points of use (schools, hospitals, companies,..) to the distribution points (Food banks and others in perspective, such as home deliveries, delivery to other entities or soup kitchens, etc..).

The specifics of each municipality, the distances between points, and sustainable urban and interurban mobility… as well as the economic sustainability of the network in the medium to long- term has also to be considered.

Curent state

• More than 30.000 kg (prepared meals recovered)  
• Food guarantee and a healthy and balanced diet for 10.000 families in a situation of social exclusion and/or vulnerability for each year.
• Annual distribution of 60.000 meals.
• Annual distribution of 50.000 kg of fruit and vegetables. 
• Recovery of approximately 204 kg per day of fruit and vegetables from Mercavallès, which is approximately 10% of the total food waste at this center.

Target Groups

• Schools (food production point)
• Mercavallès and municipal markets
• Social entities and food banks, cooperatives
• Health centers (food production point)
• Private enterprises, collective catering, shops, restaurants.
• Society, especially vulnerable people. 
• Public administration

Expected impact

We intend to obtain information, solutions and proposals that allow:

• Identify good practices (social and logistical) from other territories transferable to ours.
• Identify and design innovative formulas for the logistics and transport of food (sustainable mobility at an urban and interurban level)
• Study how the scope of the program being carried out can be expanded and how to complement it with innovative practices.
• What technological solutions can facilitate the process of traceability, monitoring and control of the system from collection to delivery. 
• More knowledge about how engaging people in situation of vulnerability in the project, as well as including them in all the process. 
• Identify social necessities related to food access and find new solutions that dignifies vulnerable people.

Availabe rescoures

• Space of Mercavallès where we recover fruit and vegetables.
• All the entities, food banks, schools that participate in Recooperem project.
• Support of Catalan Food Safetety Agency.
• Guides, resources, projects related with the challenge:
  https://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food-waste/eu-actions-against-food-waste/eu-platform-food-losses-and-food-waste_en
• Human resources (technicians of the project)
• Guides and materials of Agencia de Residus de Catalunya and Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda. 

How to apply

You need to apply on the ECIU platform. Application Deadline: 7^th Mars, 2022

Schedule

Duration: 14^th March - June 2022

Format: Online/hybid

Expected Class composition: 20 students and researchers

Average workload: 150 hrs

Recognition: 6 ECTS, final certification