Epicerie Solidaire
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About the project
Epicerie Solidaire
📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
As a member of the Unesco’s organizations and clubs, our partner’s objective is to offer an access to the solidarity grocery to a vast majority of beneficiaries.
The solidarity grocery’s vocation is to be a space of social living, an integration and training platform, a cyber-center and a pole of international solidarity. Regarding the way the grocery works, our volunteers help us harvesting and shelving the products, they also assist us in the cash accounting, in the maintenance of the facilities and above all, in welcoming people.
There is a wide range of social activities, such as cooking workshops, “citizens’ coffee workshops”, socio-aesthetic workshops, the management of the family budget and the use of the IT tool. New activities are being created each and every day.
The grocery store is an animated and welcoming place as well, therefore we favour friendliness, listening and sharing. Furthermore, our partner organization is a place of information and orientation towards other partners.
💼 What the programme involves
Volunteers will be able to do several other tasks. A shift system will be set up for each volunteer. The volunteers will have to be interested in the whole variety of services designed by the organization. After a discussion with their supervisor, members of the team and the other volunteers, they will be invited to choose the service they prefer, taking into account the preferences of the other members of the team.
Our services are as follows:
- An Animation Pole is dedicated to different workshops (arts and sports workshops), to the digital space and to the “citizens ‘coffee workshops”.
- Regarding the grocery store in itself, volunteers will be invited to help collecting the products (reserved to the beneficiaries of our grocery store), shelving these products, in the cash accounting and in welcoming the beneficiaries. However, volunteers need to be supervised. Social links hold a very important position in the eyes of our organization. Furthermore, volunteers will also be able to get involved in the administrative tasks, in the accounting and in the management of our stocks.
- Volunteers could also take an interest in the “communication pole” of our organization, in particular in aspects related to the promotion of our organization’s services.
- A pole dedicated to news ideas/ social innovations could also be at the center of a project for one of the volunteers. This pole would be an opportunity for this volunteer to get involved in a project that he/she would be responsible for. He/she will be able to rely on the help of other volunteers, beneficiaries and/or members of the organization.
🏠 Accommodation on site
The house of volunteers, where participants stay, is located close to the solidarity grocery store (three minutes by foot). This house is also a place of training and welcoming. The house offers numerous rooms with a private bathroom. Other than that, the accommodation has two big living rooms, a training room, two big kitchens and two separated toilets on each stair landing. Each volunteer will be offered a room in a non-mixed dormitory with a private bathroom. Each room is equipped with a bathroom which has WC, a big Italian shower and a sink with a private access. The accommodation consists in two bunk beds per room (the room capacity is therefore of four people maximum per room). The rooms are big and comfortable enough and they all have wide windows. They can also be locked. Furthermore, volunteers will enjoy numerous private racks located in the rooms, the kitchens and the laundry rooms.
Volunteers will have the possibility to relax in the living rooms, in the common areas or in the big kitchens. A laundry room with washing machines and an iron is also available for everyone. Furthermore, volunteers will have free access to the garden.
Participants to the project are autonomous. Consequently, they have to tide up their rooms themselves. Furthermore, the common areas (kirchens, WCs and living rooms) have to remain clean in order to enjoy them in good conditions.
🍲 Food
Participants to the project (volunteers and groups) will have the opportunity to enjoy some of our grocery’s services thanks to a temporary card (whose duration varies according to the duration of the project). Thanks to this card, they will be considered as beneficiaries of the grocery store all along their project. This status will give participants the opportunity to buy our products at a low price. Buying these products will also be a way of preparing their meals by themselves at the house of volunteers. The products we sell at the grocery store include food, cosmetics and hygiene products, but also cleaning products for the house.
Volunteers could also get some products for free, namely at lunch time (from Monday to Friday).
In the morning, volunteers will have to take their breakfast in the kitchens designed for this inside the house of the volunteers.
At lunch time, the kitchen is available for everyone. Volunteers will have to cook their meal with the products coming from our grocery store. If they feel like it, volunteers can also bring their own meal. Our grocery store contains products adapted for every type of diet. Meals are taken all together and can be shared with the volunteers and the members of the organization if they want to.
Concerning dinner, volunteers will prepare their meal entirely by themselves. They will be offered a kitchen located inside the house of volunteers which they will share with other people living in the house.
📍 About the location
Participants to the project are hosted in a solidarity organization. The main activity consists in making the solidarity grocery work. Apart from that, the organization remains a welcoming place dedicated to people going through a difficult period of their life, either socially or economically speaking. Being welcoming, attentive, respectful and comprehensive is of utter importance for us. We dedicate a lot of our time to people. The organization welcomes beneficiaries from different cultures, with different objectives. Their main request remains the access to the solidarity grocery store, but our beneficiaries can also follow a path of re-insertion into the labour market or into social life in general through a series of activities. Volunteers will be able to share these friendly moments of information with our beneficiaries and therefore, show them their support in this painful period of time.
Communication is also a very important dimension in the project. We do wish that the volunteers feel listened to, useful and that they will feel free to share whatever they want with the members of the organization together with all the other people serving the organization. We want to put these social links forward through a series of common and recreational activities. These activities are organised regularly so that the volunteer can feel well during his/her whole project.
🎒 Leisure activities
The solidarity grocery store is opened to beneficiaries from 10:30 to 12:30 in the morning from Tuesday to Saturday (beneficiaries have access to the grocery store and the social and professional support). The collection of products take place on a daily basis (from Monday to Saturday) from 8 to 10:30 am. Afternoons are dedicated to sports and playful activities, which generally run from 2 to 4 or 5 pm from Monday to Friday.
The region of Occitanie offers a large bunch of activities. Located between the mountains and the sea, it offers many activities to the volunteers, either linked to the sea or to winter sports, all being accessible directly from our offices. Our department counts numerous vineyards and rural lands which offer many different landscapes. There are many paths where volunteers can hike while observing beautiful landscapes. Besides, the Catalan and Spanish cultures are true assets to discover new languages and customs which differ from the other French ones. Our organization can inform participants about all the sites they can visit in this magnificent region that never stops living.
Finally, we do insist on the freedom of each volunteer to find a field which is going to really interest him/her. We are aware that the gap between the presentation of a project and its reality can be taken into account differently according to the volunteer. This is why we really want each volunteer to observe the activities and fields represented in our organization for a few days. Therefore, a good communication between the members of the organization is essential. We really wish that the volunteers will tell us how they feel in order for them to enjoy their project to the fullest and leave it with the feeling that they have been useful towards a project they really felt like setting up. This is why an individual meeting is organized, then followed by a collective one, in order to analyse each volunteer’s objectives, taking into account everyone else’s desires. Keeping all this in mind, volunteers could take part in some activities rather than others while not leaving the other services aside.
ℹ️ Additional information
Project fees: 80 euros for the accommodation
20 euros for the participation to the project.
Interested in this project? Create your account and apply online.
Sign in to apply📅 Available sessions
Acacia-2019-individuel
24/10/2018 → 31/12/2019
ℹ️ Key information
Age required
18–99 years old
Solidarity donation
100.00 EUR
French tax residents may be eligible for a tax reduction of up to 66% of their costs (membership, plane tickets, solidarity donation).
📍 Location
8 Bd des Évadés de France, 66200 Elne, France
France
🌍 Location info
Local currency
Euro Member Countries (EUR / €)
Timezone
Central European Standard Time
Local time: 21:21 (12/11/2026)
🛡️ Before you leave
✅ Features
🗣️ Languages spoken