Slow Food has operated for more than ten years to benefit small farmers and local producers, stimulating the interest of people in food and the way in which our food choices affect the world.
In 2019, Reale Foundation recognised six Slow Food Communities in Chile for their innovative projects, which defend and develop a better food system, to protect biodiversity and human well-being.
The communities recognised included La Melga Community on Chiloé Island. This community is committed to locally promoting a clean and just diet and familiarising the inhabitants with organic and zero-km products through workshops, fairs, and the “Mercado de la Tierra” (Earth Market). Here, neighbouring producers and communities who are committed to the same cause can regularly meet.
The project
The backbone of the Slow Food project of La Melga Community of Chiloé is the Agro-ecological Training School. This school provides expertise and skills for consolidating the agro-ecological production and local food supply process. The school, which is held digitally, has enabled all its attendees to strengthen their cultural identity as producer and consumer, acquiring and recovering ancestral flavours and knowledge, but also approaching a cleaner diet based on agro-ecological culture.
Thanks to Reale Foundation’s support, La Melga Community has also been able to launch collaborations between its School and the CET - Centre for Education and Technology - of Yumbel (Bío Bío region) and Chonchi (Chiloé). It has also established a scientific research partnership with Anthropology, Archaeology, and Ethnobotany professionals for studying plant species used for food in the pre-Hispanic era.
La Melga Community Slow Food project was presented for the first time on 16 August 2021 through an exhibition in the town of Castro, organised at CECREA - Centre of Creation. The CECREA organisation is part of the Chilean Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage that promotes the right to imagination and creativity among young people.
Project name: Slow Food Chile - La Melga Chiloé
Proposing organisation: Slow Food Chile
Project intervention area: Environment and Sustainable Communities