Our activities

The shop

Located in the Capuche district, our solidarity grocery store welcomes you 5 days a week in 70 m² of sales space.

In order to promote a dignified and varied diet to as many people as possible, we offer a wide variety of products :

• Bread
• Fruits and vegetables
• Fresh products
• Dry groceries
• Drinks
• Frozen
• Household products
• Hygiene products
• Animal products…

Eco-citizenship is everyone’s business and it is at the heart of EPISOL’s work to enable everyone, regardless of their standard of living, to develop this sensitivity.

We also offer many local products, organic, in bulk but also products from solidarity sectors and food collections at very low prices, in order to satisfy the diversity of our customers.

Anyone can come to do their shopping as in a traditional convenience store. To have access to modulated pricing according to resources, you must join the association.

The Mobile

La Mobile is the mobile version of our solidarity grocery store.

She who goes to various sites in the Grenoble area in order to make our products accessible to as many people as possible.

The conditions of sale are the same as in the store. We offer a smaller range of products than in the store but we adapt to your requests: if you need products that are not present on the site, you can pre-order them when you come to the site.

The Mobile is also an opportunity to meet isolated people, offer local activities and strengthen ties of solidarity between the residents of the neighborhood.

Baskets

These are baskets of fruit and vegetables distributed weekly, from October to June in the Maisons des Habitants in Grenoble and in a few other places.

Our products meet the following specifications: they are local (Rhône-Alpes origin) and – or organic (French origin). With the exception of citrus fruits which are organic and produced in Europe.

Each basket consists of around 3.5 kg of fruit and vegetables worth € 8. To access it you must join the association and make a commitment for at least one quarter. Then differential pricing is applied according to your income and in a logic of solidarity.

Distribution times are designed as spaces for conviviality and meetings between the inhabitants, the family referent of the Maisons des Habitants and the members of EPISOL. Thus, so that users keep their place within the system, they participate in the making of the baskets and their distribution.

The Anti-Gaspi

In order to pursue its objective of combating food waste and strengthening everyone’s access to fresh products, EPISOL organizes collections of unsold food from partner supermarkets. This daily activity, managed only by volunteer teams, makes it possible to collect several dozen tons of consumable products quickly each year. Once sorted, these products are resold at a very low price in our store and on the mobile.

Since 2019, EPISOL has also collected fruit and vegetables from wholesalers in the Markets of National Interest. Tuesdays and Thursdays, two teams of volunteers sort these unsold items on site. This new activity is currently being structured. Currently, fruits and vegetables are upgraded within EPISOL (store and Mobile) as well as with Accueil SDF as part of their distribution of food parcels. We are currently studying other partnerships so that these fresh products benefit a greater number of precarious people.

Social Animation

In its project, EPISOL places at the heart of its intervention the articulation between action in favor of access to quality food and social animation promoting living together, diversity, the creation of links and solidarity.

Across all of our activities, volunteers, volunteers and employees organize:

• a daily presence to welcome and interact with customers ;
• workshops around themes related to food and the fight against food waste ;
• convivial times for discussions around a coffee;
• activities in the neighborhoods, in conjunction with local stakeholders.

Finally, during the winter period, EPISOL is involved in the preparation and distribution of a solidarity meal for people in great precariousness, in connection with the Collective of associations of volunteers fighting against precariousness and exclusion.

Insertion

To achieve its objective of fighting unemployment and its social project more broadly, EPISOL supports people far removed from employment towards sustainable social and professional integration.

Approved Workshop and Worksite Integration, it offers sales assistant positions in the store and on La Mobile, in the form of CDDI (Fixed-Term Insertion Contract). These employees are supported by technical supervisors in learning professional skills as well as by the integration officer for formalizing individual careers.

EPISOL wishes to bring its vocation of integration to life beyond the traditional framework of Integration through Economic Activity. By relying in particular on its social animation and its rich associative life, we propose to all – inhabitants, members, volunteers, employees in integration or not – to build together bonds of solidarity, citizen mutual aid, networks, which promote the social inclusion of everyone.

The resource center

The development of EPISOL and the growing recognition of its experience have led EPISOL to receive more and more requests in the field of solidarity food. From 2018, the association, in partnership with Grenoble Alpes Métropole, has deployed a new mission of “resource center” which revolves around 3 axes:

• Coordination of the CALISOLI network – Collective of Solidarity Food Actors in Isère – in order to promote the exchange of practices, pooling and mutual aid between its members;
• The transfer of experience to project leaders – individual or collective – wishing to create similar initiatives in France;
• Support for research and teaching around issues of solidarity food and more broadly social and solidarity economy through testimonials, visits …