A few weeks ago, a new traveling market was launched in Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne). Every Sunday afternoon, he moves to a new neighborhood. Its particularity: to offer unsold goods to the most precarious families. And, since January 9, this “solidarity” market has met with great success at each edition.
“The success of the operation shows the strong social crisis in the neighborhoods that we have targeted. These are neighborhoods where more than 50% of people live below the poverty line. In Châlons, the poverty rate is 21% where the national average is 17%. And this figure has only increased with the departure of military personnel,” explains Rudy Namur, the departmental councilor behind the project.
And this boost after the holidays, the inhabitants of these disadvantaged neighborhoods welcome it gladly. Every Sunday, a hundred people crowd under the barnums set up for the occasion. On the stalls, crates of turnips, carrots or oranges are sold at cost price by one of the operation’s partner merchants: “I sell everything at 1 euro per kilo, I lose a little money but we are here to please people in difficulty. In winter, we have less waste because the products keep much better, but I do it with a good heart,” explains Mohamed Guetnaoui.
A hen farmer who throws away poorly sized eggs
The “anti-waste” aspect is also at the heart of the concerns of this new project led by the Engages Partagés association and elected officials Khira Taam and Rudy Namur. “When I met a trader who was throwing away almost a quarter of his stock at the end of the week, I said to myself that it was necessary to give a second life to these non-consumed products while helping people”, recalls Rudy Namur.
For now, a baker, a butcher and a fruit and vegetable specialist have joined the adventure. But Rudy Namur hopes to forge other partnerships. “We also want to contact a chicken breeder who throws away poorly calibrated eggs, slips the adviser. The objective would then be to launch a label of solidarity traders in Châlons”. But, first, the association will make an initial assessment of the four editions of January. The long-term objective is to perpetuate this solidarity meeting in working-class neighborhoods.