One Page Summary

Greece is currently experiencing the worst financial and social meltdown she has had to face through its modern history. More that 3 million Greeks live below the poverty line and they have to face the food insecurity every day. The Soup Kitchens, Orphanages and Charitable Institutions that could provide food to those people, struggle every day to find enough food supplies to cook for them, since they rely mostly on donations. Also, they don't have access to the more expensive, but essential food supplies, such as the olive oil, since nobody donates expensive food items.

On the other hand, Greece produces excellent, top quality food products, from various small producers from all over Greece, which they don't know how to promote them and how to export them, in order to become sustainable and contribute to their families and to the Greek economy that is struggling to recover. The Mediterranean diet is famous all over the world for its health benefits, but the Greek food products have not reached yet the global sales that they deserve...

The solution is Wise Greece! A social enterprise that combines those two facts and helps the young small farmers from the rural areas and the islands of Greece to grow and create sustainable businesses, while at the same time uses its profit from the sales of the products in order to buy food in bulk from the same producers and donate it to Soup Kitchens and families in need! In this way Wise Greece supports the producers twice, while manages to provide the top quality food that the Charitable Institutions need. It is a multi-awarded Initiative that its business model has been studied by experts and academics, since it has a maximum social impact.
Wise Greece:
-Contributes to the Greek economy
-Supports the primary sector (which is the second largest after tourism)
-Helps young people to become farmers and entrepreneurs. To stay in the rural areas and produce innovative food products.
-Provides food to vulnerable groups of people and makes sure that they will get even expensive essential products, such as olive oil.
-Educates the producers about food waste in the production unit and about ways to reduce their environmental footprint (food production is one of the main polluters in the world).
-Eliminates the transportation cost and pollution, since it handles the orders for all of the producers in a more centralized way.
-It is a cost effective solution both for the producers and the points of sale in Greece and abroad
-It promotes the collaboration between the producers with the creation of co-branded products, while at the same time creates a solid brand for the Greek products!

Our next step, is that we focus on the 6th District of the Municipality of Athens, where we plan to open a store in the Municipal Market of Kypseli, which is going to be the first Market in Greece that is operated solely by social enterprises! 

It is true that the 6th District of the Municipality of Athens faces the worst problem in terms of people living under the poverty threshold, as well as hosts people that come from other countries and face the income insecurity. This is why we decided to focus on this particular area and open the first Wise Greece store!


This store is going to be the "first non profit store in Greece", where all the profit from the sales of the products will be converted into food for the unprivileged people living under the poverty line in the Municipality of Athens! In this way we will provide an income to the small producers and a constant flow of food to the citizens that face food insecurity!


Specifically the store:
-Will provide a fair environment to the small producers from all over Greece to sell their products and gain a fair income.
-Will turn its profit into food for the Charitable Institutions based in the 6th District of the Municipality of Athens.
-Will gather the surplus products from the producer's Units and donate them to families in need in the same district
-Will organize workshops about food waste in the production units as well as events for the consumers to get to know the ways they can too fight domestic food waste by using the excess food and create new recipes, based on the Greek diet!
-In collaboration with other non profit initiatives will organize permaculture workshops, thematic food tastings about the Greek olive oil or honey varieties, while at the same time will organize training for young people interested to become producers and help them with their first points of sale network.

Most importantly the first Wise Greece store, will be a bridge between the small producers, the consumers and the local community of the 6th District, in order to maximize the social impact of this project and ensure that the whole circle gets benefited. From the producers that live in a secluded island in Greece to the families that live below the poverty line in the 6th District of the Municipality of Athens...