This is a unique initiative in France: a van converted into a “mobile and solidarity cannery” collects unsold organic and local vegetables, to process them on site, before being distributed to neighborhood houses in Romans (Drôme).
The project of the “Mobile and solidarity cannery” was born from the reflection of a collective of about twenty inhabitants of the Ors neighborhood center following the shutdown of the central kitchen of Romans in April 2014.
Not satisfied with the vacuum-packed meal trays delivered as a replacement, the Les Ors leisure center, under the impetus of its director at the time (Jean-Marc Reverbel), imagined an alternative to allow children to eat better, that is to say good, organic, and local.
To escape particularly restrictive regulations in terms of school catering, the initial idea was that of a kitchen truck located outside the establishment and powered by donations from local producers of fruits and vegetables.
Gradually, the idea germinated in the minds of the inhabitants and employees of the city’s social centers. Until 2016 when the collaboration of the neighborhood centers Saint Nicolas, des Ors and Noël Guichard, allowed resources to be pooled.
The first “picking hikes” were launched in the spring of 2017: volunteer residents went to local partner producers to pick up unsold fruit and vegetables, which were intended only to enrich the compost. The second stage is that of processing using sterilizers for the purpose of canning.
Nearly 300 pots were thus cooked, ready to be stored.
On October 03, 2018, the truck-kitchen-laboratory happened, dramatically changing the scale of the project.
Urbanites transported to the countryside
The idea is to promote good eating without breaking the bank, and without ruining the planet. One of the partners, the “Graine de cocagne” social integration garden, makes tens of kilos of unsold organic vegetables available.
The report by Christian Conxicoeur, Stéphane Hyvon, and Valérie Bonnier
The members will thus learn to transform vegetables into condiments, with of course clean utensils, scrupulous hygiene, and the knife that must be tamed.
After this preparation, there remains the cooking, then the distribution: this part happens in the neighborhood houses.
The “mobile and solidarity cannery“is an initiative that may have a national future, since the French Red Cross is taking a close interest in the Drôme project.
