2023-12-21 17:48:38
“Our food boxes are empty!“. It is with these words that Pauline Duclaud-Lacoste, founder of the association Feed the culturewhich distributes food parcels for workers in the creative sector et which has helped 25,000 people over the past 3 years, justifies the action carried out by a few volunteers.
It is in front of the headquarters of Happy Hour market – a start-up that collects unsold food to resell it at half price – that they decided to sound the alarm.
In this field, there are also today truly international companies like Too Good To Go which claim to fight against food waste and which operate via online applications by offering products at very low prices.
On his site, Too Good To Go boasts 2.6 million members, more than 7,000 suppliers and 14 million food packages collected. For example, Carrefour Belgium declares in the columns of our colleagues at Echo having sold more than 2 million surprise packages made up of unsold items via Too Good To Go since 2018.
A windfall which escapes small associations which find it more and more difficult to convince increasingly franchised brands and which see their profit first.
Unsustainable competition
These anti-waste companies exert unsustainable competition according to the organizations which collect and redistribute unsold goods from supermarkets free of charge to offer meals to the most deprived people. “Before, these unsold items were collected by associations like ours and redistributed to the most deprived,” explains Pauline Duclaud Lacoste. “But these new structures are taking advantage of a legal loophole to make money and fill their pockets. And we are unable to pay for these unsold items. It’s not illegal but where is the morality? “
Another example at Ilot, a Brussels association which collects and prepares 100,000 meals per year and which finds itself powerless in the face of these commercial companies which have very different logics and means of persuasion. “For the moment, we are not short of food because we are over-harvesting to supply our four distribution centers. And what we have in excess we offer to other associations“, explains Philippe Debuck, day manager of the island. “SOn an ethical level, it is already abnormal that we have to feed our “poor” with unsold items. But if commercial companies also start selling them, the driving force is not the same. These are two different logics. We don’t speak the same language at all.“
Another logic
Those responsible for Happy Hour Market defend themselves: “We have to stop being hypocritical. There are more than 200 tonnes of food thrown away every day by major retail brands in Brussels. Small associations do wonderful work but we complement each other.”
They add: “We buy short-term products from supermarkets and resell them at low prices for people who have difficulty making ends meet. We should collaborate together. We are already doing this with associations who do not have means of transport and which we deliver daily. It’s a big advantage and we also give them access to products that they don’t usually receive. Today, 80% of the products marked down by large retailers end up in the trash.”
Pour Happy Hour Marketthe criticisms of the associations are unfounded: “There is room for everyone. Associations which claim the opposite are showing bad will, refusing any collaboration with us and do not represent all the organizations working in food aid..”
To which Pauline Duclaud Lacoste responds: “I have worked with these companies but what they offer us is unsold unsold goods. We are not trash!“.
Law void
These commercial companies exploit the legal vacuum that exists today regarding food resources. Nothing obliges major retail brands to offer their unsold goods to associations.
In the Brussels-Capital region, it is the Minister of Social Action Alain Marron who is in charge of these questions. His office says it is preparing an order which would notably require stores of more than 1000 m² to transfer their unsold goods to associations to guarantee them sufficient stocks.
In the meantime, the anger of small associations is growing in the face of the ever-increasing number of requests for food aid that they cannot always satisfy.
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