Halle, Belgium, 2018-Feb-28 — /EPR Retail News/ — Colruyt reaches more than 2000 families with social project ‘Dinner is served at 1 -2-3 euros’ 100 th town joins the project Halle, 20 February 2018 . All told, one hundred towns have agreed with Colruyt Lowest Prices to make a tasty and balanced diet more accessible to families in financial difficulties. One year and a half after the start of ‘Dinner is served at 1 -2-3 euros’ about two thousand familie s are already participating. Every two weeks, they receive a budget -friendly booklet with 6 easy recipes costing maximum 1, 2 or 3 euros per portion. A balanced diet is a basic right for everyone and Colruyt thus hopes to offer extra inspiration.
Budget -friendly recipes
The ‘Dinner is served at 1 -2-3 euros’ concept is simple. Vulnerable families with kids are informed by their Social Service or organisations such as Child&Family, the Centre for General Well -being, House of the child , etc. Families can enr ol and will then receive a Colruyt cookery booklet every two weeks. It contains six easy and child -friendly recipes and the shopping lists. Each recipe is enough for three large portions and costs no more than 1, 2 or 3 euros per portion. This includes the price of the whole packaging, even if less is needed to make the recipe. It allows people to know in advance exactly what they will pay at the check -out. The cookery booklet also contains tips to let kids help and to turn leftovers into a tasty dish.
To support participants, some social organisations organise cooking demonstrations to prepare recipes together. Or they ask the local Colruyt store to organise a guided tour, during which store employees can give tips on efficient and cheap shopping.
“No gourmet cook”
Today, the project has about two thousand participants, thus reach ing the same number of families. Colruyt notices that at least 37% of the participants already used the cookery booklet in a Colruyt store and 24% are frequent participants. Of course, some participants may shop at other store formats.
People are often happy with the inspiration for daily cooking, without having to rack their brains over the price. “I am not a gourmet cook, and I wanted to let you know that, thanks to you, I succeed in conjuring up satisfactory, varied, affordable and delicious dishes. I simp ly wanted to tell you that this is a really interesting initiative, so thanks!” , says a participant from Kortrijk.
Feedback from coaches does Colruyt good as well. Kurt De Loor, chairman of the Social Service of Zottegem: “Putting a balanced meal on the t able every day is not a picnic. Especially when it is not easy for people financially. We hear this a lot from families who visit our Social Service. That’s the reason why we decided to join Colruyt’s project. It is an easily accessible way to inspire people to conjure up cheap yet healthy meals. I am convinced this project will be a success in Zottegem as well.”
Roll-out in the whole country
‘Dinner is served at 1 -2-3 euros’ started two years ago as a test project of Colruyt, in cooperation with the Socia l Service of Kortrijk. A group of 144 families with kids living at home tested the concept for six months. The reactions were positive and Colruyt decided to roll out the project on a national level. In the past year, things have been moving really fast. R ecently, Zottegem was the hundredth town to join and applications keep coming.
“More and more often, social organisations tell us there is a need for simple tools to work on a balanced diet. Today, many West -Flemish towns are participating, but cities lik e Sint -Niklaas and Ghent also joined. And Wallonia also shows an interest: Namur an d Charleroi recently joined the project and there is much enthusiasm” , says Colruyt coordinator Wim Verbesselt.
Productive partnership
Cooperation between private, local a uthorities and social organisations starts from their expertise. “Social organisations know the vulnerable families and their need for measures to combat poverty” , says Wim Verbesselt. “At Colruyt we have a lot of expertise in cooking tasty and balanced fo od. If we join forces, we can make a structural and sustainable differen ce for people in difficulties. We are very happy to be able to take away some of the concerns of families with children and to help them manage. It is one of the many ways in which we fulfil our corporate social responsibility.”
SOURCE: Colruyt Group
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