An EU-funded project in the capital of France’s Hauts-de-France region offers a tasty solution to tackle poverty and unemployment, and aims to regenerate an area hit hard by de-industrialisation. A food court will be constructed in parallel with the launch of an innovative communal kitchen that can host educational, training and social activities for local people.
- 30 July 2020
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 ‘Chaud Bouillon!’: a place dedicated to food, mixing cooking, productive and food-service activities. Since its main purpose is social inclusion, anyone will be able to go there to share time and know-how with friends and family.
In 2001, the closure of the Fives Cail Babcock steelworks – a major local employer in Lille’s Fives district – signalled the decline of a once-thriving industrial area. Unemployment subsequently rose to 20 %. Today, people under 30 account for almost half the district’s residents and have little option but to seek work outside the neighbourhood.
With the TAST’in FIVES project, Lille is renovating a 2 050 m2 hall on a former brownfield site. Chaud Bouillon, expected to open by 2021, will provide a shared space where local residents can train, cook, dine and socialise.
A taster of things to come
Works on the Chaud Bouillon site are ongoing, so a temporary site has been constructed in the meantime. The Avant-goût is open daily from 8.00 to 22.00 and offers training facilities, indoor and outdoor dining spaces and an urban farm. In the summer of 2018 and 2019, it hosted a food court with four restaurants and two bars.
The Avant-goût has proved to be a great success. About 120 000 people from all over the city have already used the area. It has created jobs and will enable training for people of all ages. During the summer, around 20 people work on site daily to manage its activities.
Initial activities included a cookery workshop in a theatre kitchen where participants created a menu and served it with a theatre performance. Around 1 300 events have taken place, including workshops with elderly citizens or homeless people and local initiatives hosted by NGOs or entrepreneurs. Activities with schools have helped raise awareness about the importance of a balanced diet, and enabled children to discover different kinds of food. About 20 000 people have taken part in such events.
While many of the activities have raised awareness about food waste and healthy eating, TAST’in FIVES also looks to address other challenges such as isolation, lack of social interaction, lack of training options and loss of civic pride. It is fostering a network to support the permanent kitchen once it opens.
The next course
Once complete, Chaud Bouillon will include a communal kitchen, an incubator for new food businesses and a food court, all under one roof. The central food hall will cover an area of 1 000 m2 and will host daily cultural events. Agreements have been signed with the private and public organisations who will manage these services.
Local residents will be involved in designing and running the community kitchen, which will support new economic and social activities. Food start-ups will be able to make use of the facility’s professional training kitchen and food incubator.
TAST’in FIVES will integrate a technological dimension by developing an experimental module for vertical urban farming and contact-free technologies to design smart stock management systems. It will help reduce food waste and facilitate the distribution of meals in collaboration with social NGOs.
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.