Ayuntamiento de Quart de Poblet (QUAR) is a local authority placed in the Valencian region, Spain. Quart de Poblet has more than 24,000 inhabitants and its area is 19,6 km2. In the framework of the Cities2030 project, QUAR contributes with the establishment a policy and innovation lab. It will consist of a Food Lab led by the City Council of Quart de Poblet, with an active involvement of public representatives.
Quart de Poblet, has a large experience in managing a wide variety of projects funded by several programs, such as H2020, LIFE, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens, many of them dedicated to the improvement of environment quality, sustainability, urban mobility, digital transformation, citizen engagement, among others.
Our participation in the project will be, the configuration of the Food Lab, which will be set up according to the specificities of the city and the needs of the local food system. In this sense, Quart de Poblet does not have a consolidated food policy, but it has taken occasional initiatives, especially, actions aimed at mitigating food poverty:
- Assistance to families who cannot afford basic necessities, through vouchers, cards, subsidies, etc.
- Establishment of soup kitchens.
- Dairy products and benefits for breast-feeding mothers.
- Home care for the elderly and sick persons, including shopping and cooking support
The city council has also carried out actions related to organic agriculture, by providing 16300m2 of land as organic gardens for self-consumption. Finally, reference should be made to the waste treatment plant that collects and manages the waste from Quart de Poblet. This entity has a plant in Quart de Poblet where it produces compost from organic waste and markets it to local farmers.
One of the main activities of this project would be vocational training in organic agriculture for vulnerable people with the aim of inserting them into the labor market.
This will allow the creation of new jobs to be occupied by people at risk of social exclusion. These jobs will be aimed at the production of local and organic agricultural products, which will be sold directly by farmers, in new points of sale that will be set up through the project itself.
