Promoter organisation: Io Potentino Onlus.
Io Potentino Onlus is an Italian non-profit organization of social utility founded in 2015 in Potenza by young people who have always been attentive to the issue of needy citizens of the aforementioned city.
Country: Italy
What:
The project “Social Warehouses” (Magazzini Sociali) was born in 2014 to fight poverty. For this reason his motto became “Power against poverty”.
The project carries out various initiatives, events and activities to collect long-life food and support people in need.
The project works by realizing:
- generic and specific food collections (such as milk or bread);
- organization of specific events to promote food collection (for example dance events, cultural events, festivals or awareness-raising activities aimed at involving schools and young people);
- recovery and distribution of food surpluses from the food supply chain, from small and large-scale distribution, or after culinary events.
How:
Magazzini Sociali can be considered a circular economy project, because solidarity is a fundamental element for the entire project.
Magazzini Sociali:
- is a network made up of 26 partners from the public, private and third sectors;
- can count on the help of over 156 donors;
- operates thanks to the help of 34 volunteers, who work on weekly shifts.
When:
From 2015 and still active.
Why it is relevant:
The project also involves research: challenges linked to the sustainability of agriculture, relationships within food supply chains, the structure of urban and peri-urban agricultural areas, connections between city and countryside, interpretation of new models of food consumption, management of natural resources intended for food production, nutritional problems related to food, waste management and prevention of food waste, food culture, distribution models, relationship between short supply chains and large-scale retail trade, balancing local products with those geographically more distant are the topics related to food and culture food that are explored within the project by students, researchers and industry experts.
Magazzini Sociali has also launched a project to transform unsold and surplus bread into beer, giving life to the “LA166” beer produced with food in application of the Law against food waste 166/2016. This product received the “Non Sprecare” (“Do not waste”) award from Nonsprecare.it and the LUISS Guido Carli University
Target group:
All the people facing financial hardships and people in need living in Potenza and in its hinterland.
RESULTS OF THE GOOD PRACTICE
From 2015 to today, Magazzini Sociali has recovered and redistributed more than 103,000 kg of uneaten food through over 8,100 donations.
Magazzini Sociali has been a member of the Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP) of ENEA (research institute and coordinator of the platform) since 2020: this platform allows the collection and exchange of best practices on the circular economy at a national level and presentation of them to interested parties.
In March 2021 the Agriculture magazine (international scientific journal) published an article on the results achieved by the project which was indicated as an excellent example of social innovation that can also be replicated in other contexts other than the city of Potenza.