Avoiding waste - Centro Agro Alimentare Torino

As of 2007, CAAT has been involved in the coordination of initiatives devoted to reducing food waste, and promoting the recovery and recycling of fruit and vegetable products into the food cycle, in order to provide assistance to people in serious financial difficulties.

The constant and continuous collaboration with public and private institutions, by the Managing Body, has enabled the development of the third sector also within a territorial reality as the Turin agri-food centre, incorporated into the social fabric of the Metropolitan City.

Currently, three associations are operational, whose volunteers are responsible for finding all fruit and vegetable products donated by the commercial companies established within the CAAT structure and distributing them externally to the cooking facilities located in the numerous reception centres.

Food Chain for Social Responsibility

Since November 2007, a project called “Social Food Network” has been operational at the Turin agri-food centre. As a result of the coordination provided by the Province of Turin, it sees an active presence of the Local Health Authority 5 and the non-profit organisation Banco Alimentare del Piemonte (Food Bank of Piedmont).

The objective of this non-profit project, integrated into the three-year programme of public policies to combat social vulnerability and poverty, is to make good use of all the fruit and vegetable products no longer destined for the commercial circuit, made available by the wholesalers present within the CAAT.

The non-profit association Banco Alimentare, the project leader, is responsible for managing all the operational phases and coordinating all the voluntary associations that, through this project, receive significant quantities of fruit and vegetable products that cannot be marketed, but can still be used by soup kitchens as food on Wednesdays (and from July 2012 on Fridays).

The project

The CAAT immediately became involved in the project, providing both facilities and organisational support free of charge. In order to make the realisation of the project by the charities as easy as possible, the CAAT, in concert with the APGO association, carried out an important awareness-raising action towards the more than 100 wholesalers within the structure.

In addition, the CAAT took steps to make available free of charge to the Banco Alimentare del Piemonte a suitably equipped area where, due to the completely voluntary contributions of the handling cooperatives, all the fruit and vegetable products made available are brought together. In view of the encouraging results so far, CAAT confirms its commitment to the ‘SOCIAL FOOD CHAIN’ project in order to make it as accessible as possible to an increasing number of organisations whose activities are intended to provide a free meal to those in need.

Collaborations with associations

Over the course of its history, CAAT has collaborated with a variety of associations primarily with the aim of reducing food waste by turning it into a resource and promoting its redistribution.

After years of collaboration with Caritas and Banco Alimentare, a very fruitful collaboration was initiated with “Solidarietà alimentare” and “Carovana Salvacibo” associations, following the 2020 pandemic. Associations such as these are comprised of young people who engage in weekly discussions with wholesalers to collect food surpluses, sort them, and distribute them free of charge to associations that then distribute them to individual households who live in poverty or difficult situations.

For the purpose of better organising the recovery and redistribution of food surpluses, CAAT has committed to allocating a space, referred to as the ‘House of the Third Sector’.