Rungis helps the down-and-outs

Unsold fruit and vegetables are collected and sorted to supply food banks. An association to develop subsidized groceries in France, called ANDES (Association Nationale du Développement des Epiceries Sociales), has a 900m² warehouse at the M.I.N where surpluses are collected and sorted to provide a more varied diet to their beneficiaries, who have no access to certain fresh produce for lack of means. This project has also permitted the reintegration of 14 people who were unemployed.

In the first half of 2007, ANDES carried out a feasibility study, commissioned by the Direction Générale de l’Action Sociale (DGAS), on the recycling of unsold but still edible fruit and vegetables at the Rungis Market.

The DGAS’ decision to run a study on recycling fruit and vegetables from the Rungis Market stemmed from a simple observation. On the one hand, the National Nutrition Health Plan 2 introduced in 2006 defined the target population as people who had minimum job security or victims of social exclusion. One of the first tasks in this plan’s implementation involved increasing the supply of fruit and vegetables to the poorest users. On the other hand, several tons of perfectly edible fruit and vegetables are destroyed or transformed into compost every day at the Rungis Market because wholesalers are unable to sell them. The purpose of the study was to bridge the gap between the people benefiting from food aid and the fruit and vegetable surplus from the Rungis Market. The study was submitted to the DGAS in July 2007. In view of the study’s conclusive results, the government officially commissioned ANDES to run this project in December. The project is called the “Rungis project’ and has been operational since 14 April 2008. It was inaugurated by Mr Michel Barnier, Minister of Agriculture, and Mrs Christine Boutin, Minister of Housing and the City.

The Rungis project

This project’s implementation permits the distribution every day of 5 tons of fruit and vegetables to all the bodies in charge of food aid in Ile-de-France. Out of the 5 tons of fruit and vegetables, a portion is recovered after being sorted and the rest is purchased directly from the M.I.N wholesalers to offset Market fluctuations while ensuring that the quantity and variety of the products proposed remains stable.

To run this project, ANDES set up a job integration workshop (atelier chantier d’insertion or ACI). The objective of these workshops is to motivate and dynamize people who have been unemployed for a long time by placing them in a work situation. 14 reintegrated employees and 3 permanent staff work at this site.
The reintegrated employees sort, repackage and prepare orders and deliver the partner entities throughout the Ile-de-France region.

The project therefore has a dual objective. Firstly, it aims to increase the quantity and improve the quality of the fruit and vegetables distributed to the food aid organizations in Ile-de-France. Besides this public health objective, the project has a social and professional integration aspect, by creating a job integration workshop.

An innovative project

The Rungis project focuses on :

• the delivery of quality fresh produce at the lowest cost,
• a desire for transparency in the food aid procurement system in France,
• preventing waste by recycling fruit and vegetables that are still fit for consumption,
• introducing complete traceability from producer to end consumer,
• pooling means and the project’s food aid aspect since the fruit and vegetables benefit all food aid
• organizations in addition to the Epiceries Sociales/Solidaires,
• the project’s social aspect by giving jobs to people who are long-term unemployed