Sustainable Food

A big party was held during the evening of Friday, 24 March, in Plaça de les Dones de Nou Barris. Lots of music and lots of great food to celebrate this pioneering initiative that just a year ago opened its doors in the Roquetes neighbourhood. It also celebrated the fact that following the early months after its launch spent publicising the project, the shop now has 100 member families.

Marc Montaner of the cooperative Economat Social explains how the project took shape. “The shop is the result of an inter-cooperation agreement with Sostre Cívic, the aim of which was to breathe life into the commercial premises of Els Cirerers, the cooperative housing development it was building, and we saw an opportunity to replicate the model which, after 10 years, is fully consolidated”. With the shop La Borda, in Sants, and now also the one in Roquetes, Economat Social has become the biggest cooperative in Barcelona, with more than 700 families supporting it.

From Sants to Roquetes

In a neighbourhood with very little commerce, one of the lowest income per capita rates in the city and an almost non-existent offer of agroecological produce, launching a project like this in Roquetes has been a real challenge, but it also opens up new possibilities.

“In our favour is the fact that there is hardly any commerce in the area where we are, and if someone from the neighbourhood wants to buy agroecological produce, they have to go quite far to get it. But we’ve also had to work very hard to make ourselves known, and we have an ongoing educational task, contradicting and demystifying this deeply rooted belief that ecological produce is more expensive”, explains Montaner.

Accessible conditions

In addition to its educational work, the shop offers very accessible conditions to its members, which are the only people who can shop there.

First of all, when they sign up as members, they simply pay share capital of 10 euros, which is returned to them when they leave the cooperative, and undertake a short 2-hour training course on the basic principles of cooperativism, agroecology and the cooperative model followed.

Also, the margin applied to the products is much smaller than in other shops. For this reason, and to cover expenses, the members pay a fee of 20 euros each quarter. Alternatively, those who prefer not to pay this fee can opt to pay a small surcharge of 15% on their purchases, and the final price ends up being similar to the prices charged in any other shop.

These two payment options reward customer loyalty because if they spend at least 40 euros per month in the shop, it works out cheaper to pay the fee.

They also offer the option of volunteering with the cooperative for three hours a month to support the shop, and in this way, members get a 10% discount on their purchases.

With the support of ”Impulsem el que Fas”

The shop launch was financed through participation securities and by Projecte Singulars, but to continue consolidating the project and reinforcing it, in the last few months, the cooperative has had the economic support of the Barcelona Activa programme ”Impulsem el que Fas” [We promote what you do].

Thanks to this financing, it has been able to continue organising activities to publicise the project and incorporate new members and explore new proposals and collaborations with organisations and vulnerable groups, with the aim of ensuring the viability of the project.

The programme’s new call for subsidy applications, which once again includes a line exclusively for sustainable food and responsible consumption projects, will be open until 11 May.