The President of the National University of La Plata, Martín López Armengol, visited the Faculty of Social Work “La Despensa”, an initiative coordinated by the popular market “La Veritida” and the University Marketing Institute “La Justa”. It is a place to market food and handicrafts, organized from the perspective of popular, social and solidarity economy and funded by the Ministry of Public Works of the nation.
The head of the course was accompanied by Faculty Dean Alexandra Wagner and the Faculty’s Territorial Linkage Pro-Secretary Sergio Damroff.
Those responsible for the project explained, “The Pantry is an important tool that strengthens the relationship between responsible producers and consumers. “It is a political act to promote a more just and sustainable food system.”
“In addition – they added – it represents a real and concrete educational space for our university students, encouraging conscious and responsible consumption. In this sense, it is a drive to promote popular, social and solidarity economy in our institution”7
During his visit to “La Despensa”, President López Armengol highlighted the special relevance of this type of initiative to “strengthen socioeconomic networks and allow better connections between producers and consumers. The presence of this type of markets, supportive, sustainable and centered on food sovereignty, It assumes particular importance in the socio-economic environment our country is passing through today.
“We know that it is very difficult for many producers to enter the market, and in other cases, there are many who have suffered the most after the epidemic. That is where the public university is, strengthening relationships with small producers, helping them with their projects and giving them a place to market their products in a program that is more convenient for consumers.”
Also, there is very little development in the region of sub-forms of marketing that can strengthen households and cooperatives for the production of food and other goods produced from a popular, social and solidarity economy.
It is worth remembering that “La Justa” is a marketer of the Social and Solidarity Economy (ESS). It was born in March 2020 with the onset of the CoViD-19 pandemic, after the closure of “Producer to Consumer” exhibitions such as Manos de la Tierra (in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering) and La Veredita (in). social work) to bring local production closer to the consumers of the city, mediate solidarity and provide solutions in emergency situations.
In the past, it expanded regionally and organized collective purchases around consumption nodes in networks with social, political and cultural organizations. The main results focus on integrating a marketing structure with around 400 diverse products, 200 producer families and 500 consumers, who buy through a virtual page in bi-weekly rounds and return at 14 nearby nodes.
