The Italian cosmetics multinational Alfaparf is the latest in a long line of companies around the world that have chosen to make the range of dishes available in their canteens more plant-based. And they did so thanks to our MenoPerPiù (Less for More) programme.
From now on, workers at Alfaparf’s Bergamo site will be able to enjoy a menu in which at least 50% of the dishes are prepared with entirely plant-based, seasonal ingredients with a low environmental impact. A great result that is perfectly suited to the PreCOP climate.
How did the partnership between Alfaparf and MenoPerPiù come about?
It all started last year when, in its 2020 Sustainability Report, Alfaparf announced the desire to pay more attention to the health of its 400+ employees at the Italian headquarters. Our MenoPerPiù programme is a way of doing this, starting in the lunch break. We trained the kitchen staff in both theory and practice, providing a four-week alternative menu — including recipes, procedures and food cost projections.
Nor did we stop there: we also worked hard to raise the awareness and improve the nutrition education of the employees, involving them by means of surveys, webinars, video bites, infographics and posters. To conclude, we devised a contest: for each sustainable meal consumed, employees will get a stamp on a card that, once completed, can be entered in a prize draw.
The launch of the new menu in the Alfaparf company canteen was an immediate success and attracted +50% attendance during the day on which the range of dishes was tested with chef Emanuele Giorgione. There was great satisfaction on everyone’s part, both customers and managers, and the new menu was enjoyed so much that from now on at least half of the canteen’s offerings will be vegan.
Not just taste: improved health and animals saved
Plant-based nutrition is not only good for our health — for example, it plays a fundamental role in the prevention of the main non-communicable diseases: cancer, cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes — but also avoids the suffering of billions of animals every year.
According to the data of Animal Charity Evaluators, choosing a completely plant-based diet would save the lives of at least 105 animals per person per year: 79 wild fish, 14 fish from fish farms, 11.5 heads of poultry (chickens, turkeys, hens etc.) and 0.5 mammals. It should be noted that this figure does not include molluscs such as mussels, octopus and shrimp, otherwise it would be much higher.
Every year around 772 billion animals die for human consumption, many of which live imprisoned on farms without seeing the light of day and deprived of the ability to satisfy their ethological needs. Choosing to eat fewer animals, or no animals at all, can change their lives enormously.
A more plant-based canteen is good for the planet
But that’s not all: what’s good for us and for the animals is also good for the environment. The food sector has a devastating impact on the planet and eating less meat means consuming less land, polluting less water, producing less greenhouse gases and environmental pollutants, less deforestation, protecting ecosystems and preserving biodiversity.
According to some estimates, if all Italians eliminated just one meat dish a week, this would have the same benefits as 3.5 million fewer cars on the roads in a year. Think about what would happen if this were the case every day! It’s no coincidence that Greta Thunberg and other Fridays for Future activists choose to eat a plant-based diet.
COP26: enough ‘blah-blah-blah’, it’s time for change
This year, at COP26, world leaders have the opportunity to change the course of events to limit the worst consequences of climate change. And one of the initiatives launched by civil society to call for a more sustainable food system is the Plant Based Treaty, to which Essere Animali also subscribes.
The initiative targets the political class, asking them to put the food system at the centre of the fight against climate change by promoting the transition to a plant-based diet and raising awareness of the damage caused by livestock farming. The challenge of the future is to put more concrete actions into practice and not continue with the ‘blah-blah-blah’, to quote Greta Thunberg’s famous speech at the PreCOP in Milan.
Our MenoPerPiù project provides the missing link for companies, allowing them to implement this beneficial change.