The Project FADAS
Young volunteers of Eurasia net, and other young people invested in the associative sector have created and developed the project FADAS: Favoriser une Alimentation Durable Accessible et Solidaire, and submitted the application for the European structure of Solidarity Project in May 2020.
A solidarity project
Part of the structure of the European Union for young people within the domain of the European Solidarity Corps. The European Solidarity Corps provides support to young people who want to initiate mutual aid actions and bring about positive changes in their local community by setting up their own solidarity project. It can be a national or local/regional solidarity activity but the project must have local impacts by involving different actors and developing new partnerships. The project must address a clearly identified theme that the young participants wish to explore together and that must be translated into concrete activities in which all the young participants will be involved. The group of young participants must be made up of at least 5 people, aged between 18 and 30, and the project can last from 2 to 12 months. The maximum financial support from the EU for these projects is 500 € per month. A coaching package and costs related to the participation of young people with fewer opportunities may be covered.
Waste and poverty
This project was born out of a willing to bring about a positive change towards sustainable development and solidarity, exacerbated by the current context linked to the covid-19 pandemic. Convinced that we all have a role to play for food security, the health of everyone but also for the environment, this European solidarity project is for the group of young people an opportunity to act collectively to integrate these issues. The project consists in organizing the collection of unsold food and its distribution in Marseille to people suffering from food insecurity as well as raising awareness about food waste.
Firstly, it will involve mapping out the shops and restaurants in Marseille that have unsold food that they throw away, and identifying and creating partnerships with food relay structures whose public is in a difficult nutritional position. These structures can be social centers, associations or solidarity restaurants. The actions of the youth group with these partners will be twofold: on the one hand, they will involve the replenishment of foodstuffs and, on the other hand, help with redistribution.
Sustainable nutrition
Throughout the 4 months of the project, Disco Soup events were organised, the aim of which is to redistribute the food collection in an original and convivial format.
The food is processed collectively with the consumers and then a festive meal of solidarity is prepared.
Through the cooking and the meal, this event will also aim to raise public awareness of healthy and sustainable eating habits, to restore the desire to cook, and to recreate social links.
Non-formal activities around themes such as sustainable agriculture, food waste and food health will be led by the group.
An ecological and sustainable project
In addition to the fact that the fight against food waste is by definition beneficial for the environment, it will promote short circuits and will be carried out through an ecological collection, thanks to three-wheeled bicycles equipped with trolleys with a sufficiently large storage capacity. This will allow for a rapid redistribution of fresh products and all containers used will be biodegradable.
They carried out a survey that enabled us to identify the specific food needs of these groups in order to better adapt our collections, and will be used by organisations that already collect unsold food. The tools created in the framework of the project can also be easily transferred to other local actors or even to other territories.