Maison d'Éducation à l'Alimentation Durable (MEAD)
The Maison d'Éducation à l'Alimentation Durable (MEAD, Center for Education for Sustainable Food) aims to promote the development of sustainable food in its area of action to allow each neighborhood, whatever their income, to eat healthily while caring for the environment and preserving nutritious spaces for future generations. The MEAD is the municipal service of Mouans-Sartoux that supports and manages the city's territorial food project (PAT) to advance debates and actions around food policies in all territories.
Few companies and actors in the restaurant industry propose balanced offers, based on a logic of sustainability and with organic, local and responsible products.
In the corporate world, food is often little taken into account and few workers find a way to eat sustainable and short-chain products during lunch breaks.
On the other hand, accustomed to long circuits, restaurateurs are often reluctant to source from short circuits due to the multiplication of the number of suppliers, irregular supply, the quantities required or even the higher cost that this may imply.
Every day, more than 20,000 workers eat during their lunch break in companies in the Pays de Grasse.
In 2016, following the creation of the MEAD and the constitution of its PAT, the municipality of Mouans-Sartoux planned to create a space to raise awareness in the economic world (restaurateurs, hoteliers, processors, companies and retailers) about sustainable food.
In parallel, the Club des Entrepreneurs du Pays de Grasse (CEPG) had initiated in 2015 a dynamic around food that generates bonds (to oneself, to others and to the earth) which was given the name Courtbouillon. In addition, for several years it has also contributed to the animation of events related to sustainable food, such as neighborhood festivals or popular meals.
In 2017, the CEPG, the city of Mouans-Sartoux and Agribio 06, in collaboration with a group of students from the University of the Côte d'Azur, decided to pool their skills and experiences to generate solutions that would make workers' lunch breaks and the food supply in companies more sustainable.
To achieve this, in 2019 they requested an EAFRD project with the aim of introducing more sustainability into companies' food practices, raising awareness among workers about environmental and social issues and positively influencing the market for company catering suppliers to move towards quality, sustainable, organic and local food.
To deepen their actions, the CEPG, the City Council of Mouans-Sartoux and two new partners, the Association de Formation et de Promotion pour Jeunes et Adultes en Recherche d'Insertion (AFPJR) and the Associations pour le Maintien d'une Agriculture Paysanne (AMAP) of Provence, submitted a new application for an EAFRD grant in 2022 to test specific solutions for supplying companies with organic and local products through the installation of refrigerated cabinets, the provision of a food truck and the preparation of vegetable baskets.
- Introduce more sustainability into the food practices of companies and restaurants in the territory by integrating the consumption of organic, local and seasonal products.
- Guarantee the commitment of companies and catering actors to the territory and its ecosystem.
- Raise awareness among business leaders, employees and restaurant players about the environmental and societal issues that arise in the region in relation to food.
- To positively influence the market for corporate meal service providers to move towards the consumption of quality, sustainable, organic and local foods.
- Implement collective actions that structure all the actors in the territory.
- Businesses are one of the pillars for the development and prosperity of sustainable food. Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize all economic and public actors to ensure that this challenge has a strong impact and beneficial repercussions locally and on a larger scale for the whole.
- The person who drives the project must be motivated and must not hesitate when approaching companies, as they are very busy and sustainable food is not their priority, so it is necessary to insist on their participation.
- It is necessary to take into account the human dimension behind the project.
- Two types of awareness-raising are proposed, one for employees and one for company managers. The first should be very practical and dynamic, of short duration (maximum one hour during the lunch break), while the second can be more theoretical, such as workshops to explain specific actions that can be implemented or the role of companies towards their employees (employee awareness, use of reusable seeds, spaces to heat meals, etc.).
- The aim is to create a set of conditions and a seal/trophy for companies.
Budget (first stage): 184,765 euros (VAT included).
- Funding from the European Union and the Southern Region via the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD): 80%.
- Self-financing of the promoting entities: 20%.
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