Between 2013 and 2018, we cooperated with our corporate member McCain Hellas, in the framework of the European initiative of its mother company McCain, for the pilot implementation of an innovative program of corporate social responsibility. Since we wanted to design a program that could act as a reference point on a pan-European level, we initially, in 2013, organized a consultation procedure with stakeholders..
Through a process of open dialogue with the shareholders of the company that was coordinated by CSR HELLAS, an innovative initiative of Corporate Social Responsibility arose, with the objective of supporting Greek farmers who lived under the poverty line, so that they could, in difficult economic circumstances, stay on their land and support their families, the local community as well as the country more broadly.
The “Karpos Frodidas” (meaning produce of care) initiative was the result of a collective effort for social solidarity in which CSR HELLAS played an active part, and was created as an answer to the necessity of supporting Greek producers and to the expectation of Greek consumers for quality products with a high nutritional value as well as production requirements that are environmentally friendly.
“Karpos Frodidas” was a pioneer product since it was the first Social Product in the category of fresh produce in our country, exactly because of the particular requirements and criteria that determined its production, from the moment of choosing its cultivation until the moment the product reached its final consumer.
At CSR HELLAS, we cooperated with McCain Hellas for a period of 5 years for the implementation of the above project, attempting to:
• Prove in practice and with tangible results that CSR is a different way of producing value for everyone but also an opportunity for confronting new problems, offering sustainable and effective solutions
• Provide the correct directions and safe guidelines so that the social result can be multiplied and long-lasting
• Disseminate more broadly the new entrepreneurial model that supports the production of Karpos Frodidas, aiming to increase future efforts in this sector
• Inform and raise awareness of Greek consumers regarding the potential impact that changes in their own consumer habits could have on the establishment of a new perception regarding production and consumption in our country.
The social model that we developed and eventually implemented created:
• Social value through new opportunities for small producers
• Business value through a new innovative product
• Prerequisites of sustainability that enable it to also be reproduced in other geographical areas and potentially in other products and sectors too