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La Botiga
La Botiga is a food guarantee service that acts in a complementary and coordinated way with the provision of the purse card. The purpose of the service, which is part of the City Council of El Prat and is managed by the Welfare and Development Association ABD in partnership with the Espigoladors Foundation, is to generate a space open to all citizens that is sustainable and unites the objectives of food sovereignty with social and labor insertion of groups in vulnerable situations, inclusive community activation, promotion of healthy habits, consumption of local and socially responsible products, the promotion of social cohesion and the fight against food waste.
It is a project that evolves towards self-management, as the ultimate goal of the governance model, and is articulated on two main axes: social and environmental.
La Botiga was born from the desire to guarantee the right to food. Therefore, despite being a service open to the general public, it has a circuit adapted to people referred by the social services of the municipality, both in the provision of food (FEAD Program) and in the accompaniment to achieve the linkage. It offers all people who approach the service as consumers the same catalog of activities, and equal treatment within the framework of rights and duties according to their relationship (member, client, supplier partner, etc.).
Key Areas:
Its main objective is to guarantee access to healthy food for people in a situation of food vulnerability. This is achieved through a distribution system of food and hygiene and cleaning products.
The project seeks not only to provide food, but also to promote the social and labor insertion of people in vulnerable situations. This includes strategies to improve the occupation of those with difficulties in accessing the labor market and generate insertion circuits in the local food sector.
La Botiga is committed to sustainability and the reduction of food waste. It collaborates with the local food sector to take advantage of food surpluses and reduce environmental impact.
La Botiga acts as a community device that empowers the beneficiaries. The project is based on values of self-help, democracy, equality and solidarity, and seeks to make people co-responsible for the project and develop skills and relationships.
In addition to providing food, La Botiga organizes a variety of community activities focusing on areas such as sustainability, food sovereignty, cooking, alternative economy, etc. These activities seek to foster autonomy and resilience in the community.
Much more than a simple “grocery”:
From the central motivation of the project- to guarantee food to those people who suffer food vulnerability to Prat del Llobregat-, strategies for the improvement of the occupation of people with more difficulty in accessing the labor market are promoted and labor insertion circuits are generated towards the productive fabric of the food sector in the area. At the same time, this local economic fabric (primary sector, agri-food and services – wholesale, retail or catering) is, on the one hand, the supplier of local products and offers healthy and proximity products that have a direct impact on improving the health of the population of El Prat; and on the other hand, it is a supplier of solidarity products and opens circuits with La Botiga to reduce food waste through the reuse of surpluses generated in each of its three sectors, actions that directly impact the environmental health of our surroundings.
But La Botiga is also a community device and, therefore, also directs its main purpose – to ensure healthy food – to develop social inclusion policies based on empowerment.
Therefore, the project is designed, from the beginning, as a universal service open to all citizens. A project based on a governance model based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. Values that govern the formulas of the Social and Solidarity Economy and that place respect for people, the environment and the territories at the center of its management model. This governance proposal places the beneficiary of the food guarantee service as co-responsible for the device, mobilizing interests and skills, enriching knowledge and competencies, and increasing their scope of personal relationships; all factors that have a direct impact on people’s health and that at the same time are transferable to the labor market.
Promoting more autonomous life trajectories and resilient communities, capable of providing themselves with the answers to major social challenges, are objectives that mobilize the space reserved for community actions at La Botiga. They can be focused on the various areas of interest that drive the service: sustainability and the environment, food sovereignty, cuisine, alternative economy, etc., and can be the impetus for situations as diverse as the beginning of new employment and training reorientations, the design of the first steps of entrepreneurial projects, being the embryonic space for groups around the defense of rights, participating in the program of activities of the city, etc.
At the operational level, La Botiga is built on a central food guarantee program. It will be possible to obtain food, hygiene and cleaning goods or other types, with a governance model based on self-management, from which different complementary programs arise, actions aimed at learning and socio-labor inclusion, community empowerment, promotion of health and social cohesion, promotion of the local economy and in the fight against waste through circular economy systems.
Project Background:
The origin of the project dates back to 2012 when Punt Solidario was born, a city project with the aim of minimizing the impact of the economic crisis by coordinating all the city’s food support resources. In these last seven years, through the Solidarity Point, 984 families have been served, that is, a total of 2,931 people, distributing 360,000kg of food. In addition, 5,420 hygiene and cleaning kits have been delivered; up to 41,390kg of material have been collected in seven solidarity activities and 21 different companies have collaborated.
Seven years after its birth and after a process of internal reflection with local organizations, service users and social professionals, the project is renewed and reinvented to take a step forward with the development of a comprehensive project aimed at guaranteeing the right to food.
Project of:
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La Botiga
La Botiga is a project of food security, community empowerment and sustainability
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