Self-service solidarity

ANDES brings together about one hundred solidarity grocery shops which sell food at very low prices to families living below the poverty line. Its aim is to help these families to become less dependent on charity, and to enable them to become progressively more independent. Guillaume Bapst, the director of ANDES, is making a break from traditional methods and organisation of food aid distribution. He realised that salvaging European surpluses is expensive, and that the available products are not always very desirable. So he decided to invite tenders from volume retailers, and passed on the discounts which he was able to obtain from them to solidarity grocery shops. He created an original social integration enterprise to provide poor people with fresh fruit and vegetables. This company removes any unsold produce from fruit and vegetable wholesalers at the Rungis market at no cost. It then sorts this produce and delivers it to all the food aid associations. This unusual business, which incorporates logistics and trade, as well as a social aspect, will soon be taught in a specific university training programme created by ANDES.