The project aims to improve social canteen services in the Republic of Moldova in order to ensure their sustainability and to further extend the access to services for people from vulnerable groups.
Specifically, the project will encourage the active involvement of civil society organisations (CSOs) in policy dialogue with PAs regarding the process of adaptation and enhancement of the legal basis that regulates the activity of social canteen services. At the same time, a regulatory framework legislating an innovative mechanism of food surplus donation and redistribution through the Food Bank will be developed in partnership with central public authorities. The new legislative framework will create favorable conditions for CSOs and other public and private providers to deliver more efficient social canteen services, thus preventing food waste.
To this end, an online platform for the Food Bank will be created, which will encourage a cross-sectoral cooperation between food suppliers, CSOs, social service providers, volunteer networks.

The platform will further strengthen the Food Bank as a national coordination mechanism for the collection, storage and redistribution of food surplus to canteen services and vulnerable groups. Furthermore, five social canteens services provided by the Public Association "Concordia" will be refurbished with improved infrastructure and logistics and their activity will be financially supported, while the staff of the canteens will benefit from training.
At the same time, a national communication campaign will be organized to encourage a behavior change regarding the donation of food and support to vulnerable groups. As a result of the campaign, an increasing number of food suppliers, canteen service providers and other social services will join the Food Bank through the online platform, further enhancing the impact and expansion of this mechanism.

The overall objective of the project is to enable civil society to foster the inclusion of vulnerable people and social cohesion by generating innovative solutions towards an increased sustainability of social canteens through a mechanism of food surplus donation and redistribution.
To achieve the overall objective of the program, there are three specific objectives:
- To improve the regulatory framework and financial mechanism for social canteens services through food surplus donation and redistribution and policy dialogue between civil society, public authorities and food suppliers.
- To increase the capacities of social canteen service providers to deliver quality, sustainable services, including in an emergency, through food waste prevention and intersectoral cooperation.
- To set up and promote a chain of food surplus donation and distribution to support social canteen services for vulnerable groups through a communication campaign for behavior change.

The main expected result is the improvement of the quality of social canteen services in the country by implementing innovative models of social canteen services and by including the mechanism of collection and distribution of food surplus, thus ensuring the sustainability of the services.
Some of the concrete results expected from the project are:
- Three studies performed on the situational analysis of social canteen services provision in the Republic of Moldova, on best practices and innovative models in European countries and on food waste in Moldova.
- Two advocacy campaigns conducted for the creation of a legal framework favorable to an efficient operation of social canteen services and the mechanism for donating and redistributing food surplus through cross-sectoral cooperation.
- Innovative models of social canteen services developed on the basis of good national and European practices and agreed with policymakers.
- An online platform for the Food Bank functioning through intersectoral cooperation.
- An online platform for the Food Bank functioning through intersectoral cooperation.
- At least five social canteen services are provided by Public Association "Concordia. Social Projects” restructured and improved with infrastructure and logistics.
- At least 300 vulnerable people will benefit from improved social canteen services provided by "Concordia. Social Projects” by the end of 2024.
- At least 5,300 vulnerable people will benefit from food distributed through the Food Bank to the social canteen and other social services that support vulnerable groups.
- A national communication campaign to change food donation behavior and support vulnerable groups through social cohesion.