In the Fives district of Lille, capital of France’s Hauts-de-France region, the EU-funded TAST’in FIVES project is setting up an innovative communal kitchen to host educational, training and social activities for local people. The project takes an integrated approach involving conviviality, healthy eating, access to jobs and training, and governance and economic sustainability. The aim is to tackle poverty and unemployment, and regenerate an area hard hit by de-industrialisation.
A multi-purpose communal kitchen in Lille
- 02 February 2018
An urban project only makes sense if it is dedicated to the inhabitants, and if it can improve their living environment. For its specific industrial history, the Fives Cail brownfield site is a symbol. The City of Lille wanted to make of it an exemplary place, where you can live, work and entertain. We thus decided to create a ‘Halle gourmande’: a place dedicated to food, mixing cooking, productive and food-service activities. For the same reason, we supported the project of a ‘community kitchen’, designed as a tool for sharing and empowering, a place to gather for the simple pleasure of cooking. Since its main purpose is social inclusion, anyone will be able to go there to share time and know-how with friends and family.
The TAST’in FIVES kitchen will provide a shared space where people can cook, eat, meet and socialise. It will also house an audiovisual studio and there will be demonstrations of vertical agriculture – a technique for producing food in stacked layers, ideal for urban areas.
TAST’in FIVES will also host workshops on subjects such as food waste and nutrition. It will give local people the chance to take intensive training courses and meet potential employers, as well as participating in cooking sessions run with restaurants.
Industrial decline and unemployment
The 2001 closure of the Fives Cail Babcock steelworks – one of the main local employers – was a big shock for the district, signalling the decline of what had once been a thriving industrial area. Unemployment subsequently rose to 20 %, much of it long-term, while around half of the neighbourhood’s population of 20 000 lives below the poverty line.
People under 30 account for almost half the population of Fives and the unemployment rate is twice as high among this group as among other age groups. Young people have little option but to look for work away from the neighbourhood. Other challenges include isolation and lack of social interaction, poor health among many residents, lack of training options and loss of civic pride.
The 20-hectare former Fives Cail Babcock site represents a major brownfield redevelopment opportunity next to the city centre. To capitalise on this, an ambitious urban regeneration programme began there in 2015. The site is being transformed into a complex that will host housing, public services and spaces, and activities that should create a new community spirit. Operations of this kind often trigger gentrification and TAST’in FIVES has been launched to ensure the poorest people in the area share the benefits of regeneration.
A virtuous cycle of training and jobs
Another key aim of the project is to create a virtuous cycle of training and job opportunities. A full ecosystem of restaurants and services is to be set up at the site, which should benefit local people through a programme of workshops and an incubator aimed at helping people find jobs in the food industry.
The kitchen is scheduled to be finished in 2019, but before that, a temporary kitchen, urban farm and public events space are being set up and a full programme of activities involving local actors is planned. This fosters development of a network to support the permanent kitchen once it opens. As far as possible, events must take place in Fives or the neighbouring district of Hellemmes, involve local actors and be adapted to the local context. The partners have spent a lot of time getting to know the area, introducing the project through official channels, word of mouth and meetings with neighbourhood organisations and encouraging people to get involved.
Initial activities included a cookery workshop in a theatre kitchen in which participants created a menu and served it with a theatre performance, and development of a menu by six young people who received training and were filmed cooking the dishes as if they were on television. Activities with schools helped to raise children’s and parents’ awareness of the importance of a balanced diet, and enabled them to discover characteristics of different kinds of food through touch, hearing, smell and taste.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “TAST’in FIVES – Transforming Areas with Social Talents: Feed, Include, Value, Educate, Share” is EUR 6 248 552, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 4 998 842 through the “Urban Innovative Actions” Initiative for the 2014-2020 programming period.