The Alliance was launched on January 21, 2008 in London with the participation of the seven European countries around the following actions:

• To define common objectives which will encourage the Alliance to grow
• To increase the political influence of the participants
• To encourage the international organizations to adopt the principles and the practices of a sustainable collective catering
• To organize activities in order to develop and spread these good practices
• To provide information and any other form of support to the members
• To create a common literature

Documents founders:

One of our main objectives is to create a charter for the sustainable collective catering, which must be presented to the participants on May 9, 2008, at our next meeting in Dublin (Ireland). Here the provisional charter which was written with the members of AlimenTerra to launch the initiative:

AlimenTerra believes that the public food services must play a key-role in the creation of a new food culture which will consider the health of individuals, of the society and the planet, and which will be based on the following principles:

• Proximity, originating from the closest practicable source, with parallel social, environmental and economic benefits  
• Healthy, part of a balanced diet, with a major use of vegetable origin ingredients and with no harmful biological or chemical contaminants
• Sustainable systems of production, like organic farming or products which maintain the biodiversity, while ensuring the profitability of the exploitations
• The promotion of knowledge and a better comprehension of food, of the cookery and its cultural values
• The respect of the rights of the employees of the food sector in terms of wages and work conditions; and of the exchanges respecting the criteria of the equitable or fair trade among the producers, processors, retailers and consumers
• Sustainable products, accessible in terms of geographic access and affordability
• High animal welfare standards in production and transport
   

Other documents of interest:

For the english report of the first meeting of the Alliance, see "Mensa Civica London action plan" (PDF)(ENG)(94K)

Relations with others allied:

AlimenTerra cooperates with RFA on the sustainable fishing issue and the collective catering (public and private). A conference could be organized at the end of 2008-beginning 2009 on this matter (perhaps in Cornouailles, England). It is also very important to include the issue of the products coming from the Southern countries used in the collective catering (not domestic).

Elements of agenda:

April 2008:

a) The on-line database on sustainable collective catering will be operational. The Citizens`Earth partners will be able to insert cards, documents, etc, and to use the database to enrich other projects and/or initiatives.

b) Publication of the third edition of our international bulletin on sustainable collective catering.

May 9, 2008:

Meeting in Ireland and conference including the presentation of the Charter for a European sustainable collective catering.

June 18, 2008:

Presentation of the Charter during the conference of Ifoam.

Autumn-winter 2008/printemps 2009:

Publication of the fourth and the fifth edition of our international bulletin on sustainable collective catering.

Continuation of the improvement of the database and creation of an international web platform for the sustainable collective catering.

October 2008:

Workshop in Salone del Gusto of Slow Food with cooks, operational teams and suppliers of several initiatives of sustainable collective catering.

Workshops/conferences:

• University of Florence on the role of the universities in the promotion of the public systems of sustainable catering
• Cornouailles: fishing and sustainable catering
• Logistics and management systems for the waste  in Turin/Genoa