We are Food is an innovative project in the city of Valencia. It is the first supermarket based on a collaborative and cooperative basis, with the aim of raising awareness and making visible the option of making a sustainable purchase, healthy and responsible with what surrounds us. “Food in the hands of the people”, as their slogan says. By now there are more than 290 partners, in addition to the support of several Valencian organizations such as For the garden, Seeds from here, etc. With everything, his promoter group, born in September of 2017, it was made up of six people who, for various acquaintances (associative, of food groups, of energy cooperatives), they found themselves at the crossroads of continuing as they were or carrying forward this interesting project that was already following in the footsteps of other similar cooperatives around the world (Bees, Bioals, Biotremol, The ecogerm, Foodcoop, The Wolf, plant, On an elephant, The People’s Supermarket, etc.). Caboussados in the project, they hope to create a network of customers who value knowing what they eat and want to create a school. But, who are these brave men and women who are behind this project? We stuck our heads into the construction process of the supermarket to get to know its faces!
FERNANDO
Vice president of the cooperative, it was with him that we first met at the association El Ventanal, to Saïdia. He was in charge of informing us and showing us how they carry out this project, which will open its doors this Saturday 19 of May in the Saïdia district, specifically to Carrer de Maximilià Tous, 26 from Valencia. He tells us that space will have an edge 200 m² and we can find everything we need for everyday life, but betting on ecological and responsible consumption, non-profit and with local products without intermediaries.
He also comments on us the benefits of membership. You can choose between two modes: the consumer partner (6 € per month) or the volunteer partner (there is no cheap economic cost a collaboration of 4 hours a month). Either way you can take advantage of the discounts, the activities, the conferences or tastings that will be held there.
all in all, Som Alimentació is a supermarket open to non-members, who will be able to buy there without any other tie than the fact of wanting to know what they are eating.
By offering him the inconvenience of living far from Saïdia, he tells us that it is planned that there will be distribution points in every neighborhood of the city. It will not be about the famous closed baskets of vegetables, but to receive the list of the purchase you can make comfortably online.
JUAN, TOMÁS AND NICOLAS
The installation design team for the new supermarket is made up of Juan, Thomas, Nicolás and also Fernando. They invite us to a work meeting in which they assess the materials of the shelves and the rest of the furniture that must make up this coherent whole of the supermarket space. Juan and Nicolás, raon's i, sometimes, is they refute some idea, but they agree to bet on a provision of the products accompanied by nutritional information and the origin of the product so that it is possible to know what is being purchased. Thomas, which is from Puig, is a designer and embarked on the project because he believed that good nutrition for his son and for him was necessary. He currently carries the nets (Twitter i Facebook), the web page, and it is the pillar on which the design of the new supermarket is supported. They have a complex task to do, you don't just need to design a place to shop, but a space to hold conferences, courses, tastings and even a children's area.
MONTSE AND SÒNIA
"I decided to jump into the pool and it has been very positive because I have received recognition from many people," Montse tells us. Sonia, his partner in the supplier selection team, he nods his head. Both tell us about all the hurdles they have had to overcome (and that they will have to overcome) to be able to obtain a list of producers who serve the products without an intermediary. Review the provenance of each product to control the carbon footprint (the pollution created by carrying a non-local product) it is not an easy task (and that is precisely why they are very happy to have found a quinoa producer in Andalusia, the closest quinoa producer to the Valencian Country). This research is particularly intensified in the products made, who, they often have several sources of the same or several foods in order to have a continuous production all year round. "The consumer must be taught that there is not everything throughout the year" - they tell us. Not only because local Valencian suppliers often have more modest productions, but because "there are no melons efficiently produced all year round, ecological and fair to the farmer". Apart from that, they tell us that they hope that the small companies see in their supermarket a way to be able to get money for their productions.
Montse and Sònia also carefully explain to us that their research goes beyond producers, as they want the products to be reasonably priced for both parties (for the customer and for the supplier), that is why one of the jobs they plan to develop is to make the customer aware of the production chain and the possibility of explaining transparently why a product that they can have at Som Alimentació has a different price than a "similar" product that they can find in other commercial areas. "Everything is not the price, especially when you know what things are made of". Som Alimentació has marked that the price margin between the supplier and the final price must only have the purpose of being able to maintain the structure and facilities of the cooperative and in no case will it be speculative.
MANUEL
We catch Manuel peeling wood and cleaning the materials for the new supermarket - the whole world hangs here!—, But, actually, he is in charge of legal advice and all the bureaucratic matters. He himself brought all the paperwork to set up a cooperative. "It wasn't easy at all - he tells us - because the Valencian regulations are not well implemented. We demanded that all partners (more than forty) we will be in person at the same time to sign the cooperative's initiation papers" - affirms Sorprés. Manuel has also been in charge of the internal regulation of volunteering rules and Som Alimentació's relationship with other organizations, the management of public subsidies and other matters in which it seems to move like a fish in water. We ask him how he got into Som Alimentació and this is where he tells us his revealing maxim: "The only way to defeat the big companies that exploit people and nature is cooperatives. If you produce it yourself, you don't have to go looking for them anymore. And this is useful for electricity, to the bank… or food".
welcome, brave and brave, for your project made a reality.
Taste it here fully supports you in this arduous task of knowing what we eat and being able to have sovereignty over our food.
ahead!
XAVIER BENAVENT / MARTINA MONLLAU
