The Keras Buti cooperative is made up of a group of associated people who directly and democratically manage their consumption of food products. It has several distribution points or “nodes” in different neighborhoods of l’Hospitalet and Marina (Barcelona). One of these is located in the La Chalmeta housing cooperative, which has been reinforced with the opening of this space that also functions as a logistics center for the consumer cooperative itself.
Among the work processes that are developed are the Arxiu Biodinàmic de Montjuïc or the Conserves Litorals kitchen space promoted within the framework of the Memòria Viva project of the Cultura Viva program of the ICUB. LaFundició, the Keras Buti association, and the Mujeres Unidas Entre Tierras association have developed various activities such as conferences on ecology, economy, and culture, collective theatrical creation processes, and training for migrants, thus initiating an activity aimed at promoting food sovereignty, critical consumption, the social economy, social organization, and community culture. Its location in the Marina del Prat Vermell, a neighborhood that is currently undergoing a major transformation, located on the periphery of Barcelona and at the same time in the center of the city’s agropolitan area, can make Keras Buti a meeting point for people, groups, and initiatives aimed at the ecosocial transition.
Keras Buti Chalmeta is an economic and community activation project for the ground floor of the Chalmeta cooperative housing building from an ecofeminist perspective, which incorporates the activation of the cultural space, the agroecological and local product pantry, and a community space for care and co-housing. The comprehensive housing project of La Chalmeta poses the challenge of how to inhabit taking into account the impact of construction, the identification of all the needs that the housing community may have, and how to satisfy them in a socially just and ecologically sustainable way.
This initiative has the support of the Social Economy area of the Department of Labor of the Generalitat de Catalunya through its program of aid to Singular Projects, as well as the program “Impulsamos lo que haces” of Barcelona Activa, which is linked to the World Capital of Sustainable Food 2021 of the city of Barcelona.