On the occasion of the 2022 edition of the International Agricultural Show, the VIVESCIA Cooperative Group and the French Federation of Food Banks have signed a 3-year partnership, with the objective of covering the annual needs in French flour of the populations in food insecurity on the territories of the VIVESCIA Cooperative, with the departments of Marne, Aube, Ardennes, Meuse and Haute Marne.
Signature of the partnership at the Salon de l'Agriculture in the presence of Christoph Büren, President of VIVESCIA and
Claude Baland, President of the French Federation of Food Banks.
A natural partnership that follows several concrete initiatives in 2020 and 2021
In the midst of the Covid-19 crisis, aware of the difficulties caused by the initial confinement of the most vulnerable people and in solidarity with its territory, VIVESCIA decided to launch a free distribution operation of Francine flour. In total, more than 8 tons of Francine flour were distributed to humanitarian associations, in particular the Marne Food Bank, throughout the Cooperative's territory.
As part of the 2021 Châlons en Champagne Fair, under the impetus of the association "Les Agriculteurs ont du cœur! "VIVESCIA had also responded to the growing needs of the Food Banks by organizing to collect a maximum number of wheat donations from its farmer-cooperators: a commitment by the VIVESCIA Cooperative and its milling company Grands Moulins de Paris via its Reims site, which made it possible to offer 11,000 packages of Francine flour to the Food Bank of the Marne.
On the strength of these various initiatives and the observation of the needs of the Food Banks, the VIVESCIA Group wished to go further, to anchor this fine action of mobilization of farmer-cooperators and solidarity of its companies in the long term and to extend it to other departments of its cooperative territory.
The setting in motion of a human and local chain of solidarity VIVESCIA at the service of the departmental Food Banks!
It's a question of nutritional balance," says Claude Baland, President of the French Federation of Food Banks, "especially since flour is one of the essential products that are in great demand by the families we serve. And it will come from the very area where these people live. A very good example of solidarity on a local scale.
For Christoph Büren, President of the VIVESCIA Group: "This partnership is a concrete expression of the cooperative, human, solidarity and responsibility values that have been shared for 100 years by the 10,000 farmer-cooperators who own the VIVESCIA Group and its employees. An attachment, a link of proximity to the territories and its inhabitants."
This partnership will allow us to perpetuate a dynamic of solidarity, initiated in 2021, for thenext 3 years, with a collective annual challenge for farmers and VIVESCIA employees: 70 tons of wheat donations, 50 tons of flour donations - that is to say 50,000 packages of 1kg of Francine flour - to the Food Banks of the Marne, Ardennes, Aube, Haute-Marne and Meuse departments. These donations will cover the annual flour needs of the Food Banks in each of these departments. This is a strong gesture of solidarity for the entire VIVESCIA chain to meet a major need: cereal products, which are essential for good daily nutrition, represent 29% of the food distributed by the Food Banks. With this partnership, they are moving a little closer to their objective of providing varied, quality food aid... and locally.
