In 2008, the ANDES association will put the results of its year-long feasibility study into action.

The General Directorate for Social Services (DGAS) has entrusted ANDES with the 2008 implementation of an experimental grocery-supply system that relies on direct commercial relationships with various trade names and manufacturers in the agri-food sector.

With a million-euro budget, the project aims to try out new ways of supplying cooperative grocery stores in five French regions (Paris/Île de France, Rhône-Alpes, Midi-Pyrénées-Aquitaine, Picardie/Nord Pas de Calais and Pays de la Loire).

The programme will initially supply each grocery with a selection from 150 products, depending on the number of users with access.

Logistics will be handled directly by ANDES in the Île de France region, while Pacte62, an association dedicated to action against exclusion, will take over in Picardie/Nord Pas de Calais, and negotiations are underway in the other regions to enable grocery stores to benefit from negotiated access to local distributors.

In addition, ANDES will become part of an integration project facilitating the return to employment of 14 people in March 2008.

This project, which operates out of a 900-sq.m warehouse space within the environs of Rungis International Market, will deliver 5 tons of produce every weekday: 1.5 from the project’s sorting activities and 3.5 bought directly from the market.

This produce must be delivered daily to four state-approved food-aid networks – Banque Alimentaire Paris/Île de France, Restos du Coeur, Secours Populaire and Croix Rouge – plus 60 grocery stores in Île de France that have requested it.

ANDES  will also boost its network in 2008 with new tools, including the Excarelle software program, which is being created to ensure full product traceability.