Two clear goals motivated its establishment: creating jobs for people at risk of social exclusion and protecting the area and farms. And they achieve this so effectively that Jordi Balari, director of the MANS cooperative, does not hesitate to say that they are “the Esade or IESE of the placement companies”.
MANS was founded nine years ago by Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera as a job creation project for people in complex business, social and economic situations. The aim is to improve their living conditions so that they can reach a better future. The way to do this is to transform and market organic fruits to help different farms in Catalonia maintain a profitable business model.
Balari explains that when they founded the cooperative in 2013, they realized they could work to democratize organic products in terms of both accessibility and price. “Many years ago, organic fruits and vegetables were not available in the big supermarkets and they were very expensive,” he argues.
They signed an agreement with the Bon Preu supermarket chain and started a program with different partners to ensure the supply of organic fruits and vegetables that they will sell under the MANS brand. But they soon realized that they would need more sex. Now, organic fruits and vegetables come from Horts de Sant Benet in Bages, from the Palafolls gardens of the Molí d’en Puigvert Foundation, as well as from the production of 41 farmers from all over Catalonia. They also expanded their deals and also distributed to “Aldi, Carrefour, Condis, Supermercats Pujol and different online stores”. They plan to market more than 1.5 million pounds of fruit and vegetables this year. Always seasonal products.
The co-op’s manager details how they try to value the work in the field in parallel. “We want to pay a fair price for their work and get the most out of production.”
“We advocate that the products in the supermarkets in Balari must have certain features and calibers, and we have signed an agreement with Aneto to not waste products that do not meet the standards required by the industry”. In this way, all the vegetables that the Aneto group needs to produce the organic broth come from the MANS workshop.
“All kinds of backpacks”
More than 150 people passed through MANS, sent by social services of municipalities and private foundations to prepare fruits and vegetables for distribution. It currently employs a total of 33 people. They offer them paid employment, participation in a respectful work environment and access to recognized education.
“When they arrive – the details – we accompany them with tutorials and teach them basic skills like punctuality, cleaning or teamwork, and professional skills like a food processing course or a product conversion course.”
According to Balari, they take people with “backpacks of all kinds”: from cases of gender-based violence to young orphans and even people over 50 who have lost their jobs and have been out of work for too long. “Often the best way to get a job offer is to work,” he says.
With them they are not more than three years. In fact, it is normal for them to be between a year and a year and a half. Herein lies the success of the project “To be able to move to the ordinary company as soon as possible”. However, the challenge for the cooperative is to meet the demands of the market with this high level of worker turnover.
“The more people pass through the centre, the better; that means we help more people. But it also means that when you have an employee trained to do a job efficiently, someone new leaves and comes along and you have to start all over from scratch,” says Jordi Balari.
On the other hand, at MANS they work to reduce environmental impact and have developed the “first biodegradable packaging” to market their organic fruit and vegetables, which was awarded at the WorldStar Packaging Awards and displayed at the Barcelona Design Museum. With this new packaging, it is estimated that more than 5 tons of plastic is no longer used per year.
The director of MANS is also clear about future challenges: “The project has a lot of room for development and growth.”