In this project it is assumed that food service and traditional products can become functional to the revitalization of the pastures of our territories.
“Eating out” is basically expressed in two ways: private and collective food service. Private restaurants have precisely the characteristic of being "private" and therefore as such are oriented by the decisions of the manager and by the choices of the consumer (such as in the HoReCa commercial channel, aka hotels, restaurants, trattorias, pizzerias, bars and the like, catering ). On the other hand, collective food service is aimed at a homogeneous category of people and has a fundamentally service characteristic. The "institutional" collective food service is regulated by a contract, in which the client, who determines the requirements, is represented by the Public Administration and the customers who use the service are schools, hospitals or prisons; in short, it is always aimed at limited and well-defined communities.
The collective catering is aimed at a community and offers a great opportunity for communication and shared choices, but it has limits and must comply with the rules of the public administration. These provide for a homogeneity of rules and requirements on environmental aspects, dealt with in the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM, the Italian acronym) and on other sustainability, environmental and social specifications, as provided for by the National Action Plan for Green Public Procurement (GPP); they are environmental and social criteria that are required in the tender of the Public Administrations for the assignment of the collective catering service. There is a reference to institutions also in the “Farm to Fork Strategy” so as to guarantee that more rigorous standards are respected in terms of public procurement for the supply of meals in hospitals and schools cafeterias.
GRACE will focus on the food service sector, both commercial (restaurants and bars have the management potential for the application of a strategy to relaunch the territory), and collective, substantially represented by school cafeterias. These are able to promote and educate the new generations to the consumption of these zootechnical products from protected areas, often in the geographical proximity of the same cafeterias, obtained from the grazing of native breeds, thus supporting the recovery of traditions and attention to environmental sustainability, social and proper nutrition.
GRACE intends to invite Local Authorities to introduce voluntary schemes for the inclusion of such products obtained from a qualifying production method. To this end, the guidelines will be drawn on the definition of specifications for public cafeterias, which will illustrate the rewarding requirements that can be inserted in the calls. And also to interact with the municipal administrations to stimulate their adoption, with concrete tools such as, for example, a better score in the calls that support such initiatives, in addition to the requirements of the CAM. A similar approach will be used for the associations of restaurateurs and HoReCa operators who have catering activities.
It is therefore necessary to create "attractiveness" of these productions by concentrating the action both on citizens/consumers present in the area, and on tourists, using and enhancing the already available services.