Category Archives: Multi-Sectoral Projects

Depot Margo

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Depot Margo saved over 35 tonnes of local surplus apples while providing social employment in order to create healthy food. This social distribution platform gives people more self-esteem and is a collaboration between RIMO Limburg, Bewel VZW, Voedselbank Limburg, Vincentius Limburg, De Wroeter and BelOrta.

That way, Depot Margo combines the economic effect (valorisation of local produce) with a social objective (poverty alleviation), an ecological gain (preventing surplus, limiting transport), a health effect (healthy fruit) and social employment.

Some impressive results:

  • 12 tons distributed to aid organisations
  • 23 tons pressed into apple juice
  • 14 950 filled bottles

Depot Margo aims for a gradual annual increase: 35 tons now, 80 tons in 2020 and hopefully 120 tons in 2021!


enVie Soups by enVie Atelier

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enVie atelier is the result of a close collaboration between Colruyt, Randstad, Mc Cain, Reo veiling (auction) and enVie Atelier. It is a social enterprise that focuses on 2 important social issues:

  1. Food waste: enVie produces a retail line of 100% natural and vegetarian soups, made exclusively with surplus Belgian vegetables. The soups are currently available in 132 supermarkets in Belgium, and the first year of sales saved 50 tonnes of vegetables!
  2. Unemployment: enVie tackles long-term unemployment by recruiting a workforce of previously unemployed people and guiding them back to the regular labour market. EnVie’s objective is to employ 10 people every year, who then to on to find a sustainable job after their training.

Chicory Croquettes by Gastronello and Cools

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Every product season, 27.OOO kg of chicory is produced. 30% of this production is unfortunately considered waste. The consumer is always in the habit of throwing away the outer leaves of the chicory which results in a considerable amount of waste. Together with Gastronello (Traicar bvba), the Cools family and want to show that over 80% of this total waste stream is actually edible and delicious! 

That is why Cools and Gastronello came up with a recipe to upgrade this waste stream to a marketable product.  After optimizing the juice and press cake production process, the partners succeeded in producing ingredients for the croquettes with a shelf life of up to 3 months. By processing most of this waste into chicory croquettes, the waste is reduced to only 5%. This means that for this company, the total amount of waste is reduced from 8 100 kg to 1 350 kg each production season, a significant improvement. 

This recipe can easily be implemented in the artisanal production of Brussels chicory. Knowing that an average of 4 000 tonnes of chicory is produced in the Brussels area, valorisation as in this project could have a significant impact on waste management in the production cycle of this crop. Considering also that this method of valorisation has some potential for other vegetables, the impact could be even greater.