an agreement signed with three associations to avoid food waste – Libération

Infrastructure, furniture, food… The Games will be “sustainable” And “responsible”, insists on Paris 2024. Goal: halve the carbon footprint of these Olympic Games compared to London 2012. On the food side, while the entire chain – from the supply of local products to the development of more plant-based menus – has been scrutinized, the Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games ( Cojop) is now working on its last link: food waste. This Wednesday, April 24, Cojop as well as three associations – Restos du Cœur, the French Federation of Food Banks and the missing chain – signed an agreement to redistribute unsold food during the sporting event.

“Second Life”

In total, close to 13 million meals and snacks should be served at all competition venues and in the various villages. If upstream, “everything will be done to avoid waste, both in terms of quantities and in terms of preventive work” warns Paris 2024, emphasis has been placed “Second Life” foodstuffs. A question that Cojop cannot escape, food that represents, on the size of Paris, “the second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions”, recalls Audrey Pulvar, deputy mayor of Paris, responsible for agriculture and sustainable food.

On paper, the device is convincing. Each year in France, 10 million tonnes of food is thrown away. “Never has an event had such large amounts to manage. This is an unprecedented logistical challenge. That is why we want to bring with us those who will best be able to support us with good practice. shares the president of Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet, and reminds that“one in three French people say they deprive themselves of food today”. Valérie de Margerie, president of Missing Link, welcomes the future partnership which will make it possible to “place solidarity in the Games”. The position is shared by Restos du Cœur and the French Federation of Food Banks, which support 1.3 million and 2.4 million people each year respectively. They unanimously rejoice in such “solidarity”.

“Social cleansing”

In fact, the timing makes some people cringe: “This is not the social work of the century, we are only entitled to the crumbs”, clarified with AFP The Reverse of the Medal, a collective of associations that condemn the harmful effects of the organization of the Olympics on the most vulnerable populations. The signing of the agreement for the recycling of unsold items comes a week to the day after the evacuation of the largest squat in France in Vitry-sur-Seine, to make way “clean” before the Olympics, and less than a month after the start of requisitions by Crous- housing in the Paris region, where more than 2,000 students are housed. Something that pushed the collective to regularly condemn one “social cleansing” of Ile-de-France for the Olympic Games.

93 days before the Games, in detail, the contours of the system still seem very vague. What foods will be affected? “Everything that an athlete does not want to have consumed and everything that does not want to be sold in catering companies: ready-made food, fruit, fresh produce, drinks. We will even be able to redistribute hot dishes, we are working on it.” explains Laurence Champier from the food banks. How many volunteers will be mobilised? “Everything will depend on the quantities, she continues, but you must be aware of closures of day care centers and associations in August, which is usually the holiday month for volunteers. We will also have to take logistics into account and accredit everyone to have access to the often very secure sites. Last gray area: how to finance such a system? “We don’t look at a cost, but at a benefit”she brushes it off, but continues to wait “participation of patrons”.