The ‘Programa de Gesti – Alimentaria’ (Food Management Programme) is a circular economy scheme that sprang out of a time of economic crisis in 2012. It has made Reus a leader in managing and combating food waste, with a highly positive impact in the social, economic and environmental spheres. The aim of this scheme is to recover food that is still fit for human consumption but is out of the retail circuit and ends up as waste – so reducing waste, creating jobs for people with disabilities and providing food for vulnerable people. The Food Management Programme (known by its Catalan acronym of PGA) turns waste into resources: it recovers fresh and ready-cooked food that is out of the retail circuit but is still fit for human consumption. This recovered food is given to the meal centre and to food distribution bodies in the town.
The Taller Baix Camp is the organisation that does the collecting, sorting and distribution of food to social bodies. The Baix Camp Workshop is a non-profit body that works with people with intellectual disabilities; in the course of 2018 there were 315 people working there, and 189 of them were people with disabilities. The scheme began in late 2012 and has developed from an innovative project into a stable, consolidated programme with enough resources and experience to assess its actions and know in which directions to grow and improve.
The PGA recovers food from different supermarkets, catering firms and food companies, from the regional wholesale fruit and vegetable market, and from a large theme park nearby. This large quantity and variety of food enables it to meet the basic needs of families in vulnerable circumstances. Such food provision means that the families can use economic resources to meet needs other than food. The programme has the support of the Catalan government’s Public Health Agency. This body has prepared a protocol for action in the area of food safety and conducts regular monitoring and assessment of the different actions taken by all parties involved.
This guaranteed procedure makes it possible to provide a reliable, quality programme for all the companies and other organisations involved. This reliability means that most companies that join the programme do not drop out and new businesses come in every year. Another key factor in the development of the PGA is the support of the Province of Tarragona. This authority is a firm supporter of the scheme and has provided financial assistance right from the start. The scheme has grown and is to become part of the future El Roser Social Centre. This facility will be an innovative new service, unique in the region, which will give the town an open-access place that fits into its surroundings. The centre will give a boost to policies aimed at people, providing a comprehensive response with an inclusive, social view of basic needs for food and temporary emergency accommodation It will house a social meal centre, cafeteria and restaurant open to all, a food distribution point, temporary emergency accommodation and space for associations and the neighbourhood association. The El Roser Social Centre, together with the premises of the Taller Baix Camp, will increase capacity to collect, store and manage the food recovered under the Food Management scheme.