We announce the eight projects selected in the call From the Field to the Pantry

We present and welcome the eight projects selected in the second edition of the call From the Field to the Pantry, a program that supports collective initiatives of food transformation, processing, logistics and/or distribution. These projects will receive funding and support for their implementation or consolidation in order to contribute to the leap in scale of sustainable food. All the selected initiatives have in common their vocation to build a better future in the face of the climate emergency and the social justice crisis, within the framework of the Social and Solidarity Economy and the transition to more sustainable food systems.

With the call Del Campo a la Despensa we seek to promote the development of collective projects throughout the food chain that promote sustainable food. In particular, we want to promote shared workshops, community kitchens or initiatives for the collective logistics and distribution of food products, derived from livestock, agriculture, fishing, beekeeping or other forms of obtaining primary products in Spain.

We are happy to share the details of the eight projects in this call that is part of our Sustainable Food line. With this programme we want to support projects that work towards the transition towards a greener, fairer and more inclusive society.

In this edition we have received 59 projects with enormous potential to facilitate access to more sustainable food at different scales and in different Spanish regions. The large number of applications received from Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, Madrid, Navarre, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands is remarkable. Also the wide representation of projects focused on the extensive livestock sector compared to previous calls. With a final budget of 549,000 euros in this call, the jury selected eight projects that we will accompany for a maximum period of three years.

“I have participated in many selection processes for rural development projects. In this edition of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation’s Del Campo a la Despensa call, I would highlight the quality of the projects in their collective vision and respond to challenges with shared solutions. All the projects valued would be worthy of receiving support and I encourage you to persevere in the proposed projects,” says Jordi París, from the Camp de Tarragona Local Action Group and jury 2023 From the Field to the Pantry

The selected projects have been:

BIZIOLA HERRIZ HERRI: Activating scale jump from distribution
Biziola s. coop.
Goierri region (Guipúzcoa)

Under the leadership of Biziola and in collaboration with other agents in the food chain, the aim is to set up a system for the sale and distribution of products from the region. This distribution system will allow access to all the towns and neighbourhoods of Goierri and make a great leap in scale in the current demand for the Biziola store. The demand generated by this commercialization aims to be a lever for the consolidation and creation of new agroecological projects in the region.

In addition, it is also intended to promote life in rural areas and small towns, to value sustainable local products and to raise awareness among the consumer sector about consumption habits and sustainability.

Agroecological collection, distribution and transformation centre in Mallorca
Associació de la Producció Agrària Ecològica de Mallorca (APAEMA)
Majorca

The project consists of the construction and commissioning of a collection, logistics and transformation center for organic and agroecological products. The centre aims to be a meeting point from which to carry out easier and more efficient logistics and distribution to supply more and better consumer groups, shops, supermarkets, hotels and school canteens.

The two collective workshops that the association has (one for canning and the other for meat) would also be moved there, so that a large part of the activity carried out by the APAEMA association and the Pagesos Ecològics de Mallorca cooperative would be concentrated. This centre is an essential infrastructure to achieve the long-awaited leap in agroecological scale and the transition towards a more sustainable food supply model for our island.

Ancares “CTA”
Transformer StationS.C.G. CARQUEIXA
Los Ancares region (Lugo)

The objective is to ensure that Ancares continues to be a profoundly biodiverse landscape thanks to the activity of meat, honey and chestnut producers. This would mean the continuity of the more than 200 agricultural and livestock families that have managed to make the Cervantes town council one of the few that has recovered agricultural land.

Through professionalization, empowerment and increased cooking capacity, the aim is to open new channels of meat marketing. In addition, there is great potential in the chestnut with more than 2000 hectares of abandoned chestnut trees, so it is sought to transform this abandonment into an opportunity without forgetting the increase in the number of beekeepers thanks to improvements in processing and marketing.

“Biosphere Eco-Dining Rooms II”: moving towards productive, commercial and logistical
optimizationMariñas-Betanzos
Rural Development AssociationMariñas Coruñesas e Terras do Mandeo Biosphere Reserve (municipalities in the province of A Coruña)

The project aims to consolidate the supply of organic, local and seasonal products in the participating collective canteens (10 schools with 1,860 diners and 6 company canteens with 5,500 diners) through support for the improvement of all links in the chain (cultivation/production, organization, logistics and distribution, consumption centers and the general public).

For them, he proposes to promote the incorporation of new producers and points of consumption. , and act as a catalyst and dissemination element to other territories in the environment with the involvement of entities such as the Rural Development Groups of Galicia or the administrations at local, provincial or regional level.

The kilombo economic and cultural ecosystems for good living
Associació Keras Buti
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat

The transformation of the Casal de Gent Gran into a neighbourhood community facility is sought, placing the kitchen at the centre as a space for critical thinking and collective creation from an ecofeminist perspective.

Currently, between 40 and 70 daily menus are offered with agroecological and seasonal products from the agricultural park at popular prices. The aim is to increase between 70 and 100 and to be able to replicate a sustainable model in other public-community facilities. Also, strengthen the neighborhood support network with the contribution of agroecological products exploring the production and distribution of non-native food linked to agri-food systems of the city’s migrant communities. Promotion of short-circuit sales by Mercabarna farmers and local cooperatives.

Promotion of short-circuit sales by Mercabarna
farmers and local cooperativesAssociació de la Pagesia de Mercabarna (APAM)
Barcelona Metropolitan Area

The project was born from the observation of a reality: the isolation and fragmentation in which the Mercabarna peasant farmers have lived since the foundation of the wholesale market. The general objective of the initiative is to structure, energise, consolidate, provide content and carry out the actions defined in the work plan of the recently constituted Associació de la Pagesia de Mercabarna so that it can value and publicise the local peasantry that sells short circuits in Mercabarna. improving their sales conditions, strengthening the link with small businesses and restaurants in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and uniting the group to empower them and make them more resilient.

All this with the ultimate objective of ending up selling more fresh fruit and vegetables from local and short circuit, in better conditions and at a fair price, something that would help their sustainability, favour the generational renewal of farms and contribute to fixing population in rural areas.

Kalaska, the cowbell
revolutionKalaska Cooperative Society, Social
InitiativeSakana region (Navarre)

Kalaska is a collective initiative for the transformation of local meat that is in the start-up phase, after five years of travel. Kalaska (“fale kalaska” = cowbell in Basque) is a type of cowbell widely used in that area, Sakana, specific for sheep and which has a characteristic sound and serves to know where the cattle are when they graze in the mountains or in the pastures and forests. A symbol of extensive livestock farming.

The workshop, like the cowbell, is a necessary work tool that indicates where the meat we consume comes from and how it contributes to keeping livestock alive, based on small, human-scale, sustainable, viable and livable farms, as well as to strengthening and structuring a territorialized food system in the region and in Navarre.

Shared workshop and kitchen in Cádiz
CA CONTIGO, S.COOP.AND.
Province of Cádiz and its surroundings

It is a non-profit labor insertion cooperative, with 5 years of experience in the production of organic and artisanal vegetable preserves that has a brand of organic preserves that are sold in Spain, France and Belgium. They produce and package surplus production from producers in the area under private label for other companies.

The aim is to create quality artisanal employment, fight against food waste, share experiences and support new companies to carry out their projects by conditioning an adapted space, investing in equipment, making a leap in scale in the activity of the workshop, launching an agri-food incubator for new projects and working on dissemination.

Beginning of accompaniment

Beyond financial support, the From the Field to the Pantry program promotes a mutual learning path in which the Foundation and the selected projects walk hand in hand towards common objectives. The projects will receive support for the development of a business model that allows them to achieve their sustainability over time and thus be able to achieve their objectives. The Foundation will also promote the creation of meeting spaces for the exchange of learning with and between projects. The first of them, the Kick-Off Seminar, will take place on October 19 and 20 in which all the selected projects will be hosted, in person.

Jury Members:

Amaya Sánchez | WWF
Piero Carucci | CERAI
Carolina Yacaman – España |Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Lorena Tudela | Agroa
Dionisio Ortiz – España | Polytechnic University of Madrid
Jordi Paris | Camp de Tarragona Local Action Group

Header photo: The Los Ancares Transformation Center wants to value the landscape and flavors of the region