National Scoop! competition – Greece

The nascent field of social entrepreneurship is growing rapidly and attracting increased attention from many sectors. The term itself shows up frequently in the media, is referenced by public officials, has become common on university campuses, and informs the strategy of several prominent social sector organizations. The reasons behind the popularity of social entrepreneurship are many. On the most basic level, there’s something inherently interesting and appealing about entrepreneurs and the stories of why and how they do what they do.

Social entrepreneurship attracted also, several teachers in Greece, in the context of the SCoopConSS project, an action whose main objective was to build a Community of Practice for European secondary school teachers interested in boosting their teaching practice by using different entrepreneurial methods based on the cooperative principles of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In 11th of June 2021, teachers with their students took part in the 1st Edition of SCoopConSS contest.

In Greece the contest was held online due to the pandemic, but that didn’t affect the efforts of the teams participated for them to present “excellent organized and sustainable ideas of social cooperatives”, as our jury of 3 experts concluded.

The evaluation of the ideas consisted of the following criteria: (1) consistency of the idea, (2) originality and feasibility of the product on the market, (3) marketing and promotion, (4) financial resources management, (5) contribution to Sustainable Development Goals, (6) social innovation and (7) presentation of the project idea. The winner of the Greek National Scoop! competition is ergaZWmai Cooperative, an idea developed by students from Fryganiotis Secondary School, which was selected as the most comprehensive in response to social needs of the local community!

Congratulations to all and we wish good luck to our winners in the preparations for the EU Scoop! Competition which will take place in Florence (Italy) at the end of September 2021. At the international competition the winning teams from Croatia, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain will compete for the title of best social cooperative idea in the SCoopConSS project!

AKETH DCT would like to thank all the students and teachers from all Greek schools that have participated in the project and national competition for their participation and we hope to see their ideas grow and develop in successful social enterprises.

 

Here is the list of schools which participated on the National Scoop! Competition and a short description of each idea:

The cooperatives activities include educating other people about the operation and structure of the product produced, i.e., the specially designed drone, the cooperation with the Technological University of Larisa, which specializes in drone technology and thus will be able to support the cooperatives work as well as cooperation with special environmental bodies in order to collect and utilize recyclable materials for the implementation of the product. Equally important business activity is the sale of the product. Finally, a necessary activity is the selection of people who will be the necessary labor for the implementation and sharing of the product.

Students from 1st EPAL Trikalon developed a cooperative which will address the biggest problems in their local community and take action in:

  • the provision of blue recycling bins and the collection of waste in mountainous and remote areas of the Region of Thessaly,
  • school education around environmental and recycling issues,
  • the construction of houses from recycled wood for people who face housing problems.

The cooperative presented by the students of 10th High School of Larisa is active in the field of catering and specifically in the diet (restaurant). Its main activities are preparation and provision of high-quality food for vegetarians, h provision of organic products and the impeccable service of its customers. The restaurant will provide customers with the opportunity for delivery products of the house. The company also aims to achieve social actions. A social action that aims to implement the Cooperative on a monthly basis is the provision of food in structures such as nursing homes, orphanages and detoxification centers. Also, the business will use only recyclable packaging on its supplies but also in orders with delivery and take away, one environmentally friendly action.

This Cooperative’s activities include the collection from the stores of goods approaching the expiration date, the chemical treatment of the collected products in order to “extend their life”, the recycling of damaged packaging, the distribution and sale of processed goods at a reduced cost, as well as the financial support (from a share of revenues) of organic crops. In addition, the organization of social events of informative character (speeches by representatives of the company) and at the same time entertaining (live music, buffet, etc.) content is provided. The cooperatives also plans activities for young and old, such as voluntary garbage collection from local parks for recycling or games and arts activities that will cultivate environmental awareness at younger ages (e.g. treasure hunt with rubbish for recycling, etc.).

The S.C.E. ergaZWmai concerns the conception and implementation of an innovative idea, according to which the students of the school will act as members of the Administrative Council of the enterprise and try to connect multiple teams (of investors, volunteers, clients, people from the government, etc) with the view of housing the homeless, in a safe and permanent way, and also socializing them again. This is happening, via medical care, sufficient fulfillment of their biological needs and of course by giving them a job, which would be equivalent to their potential and skills.

Students from 1st EPAL Trikalon developed a cooperative which will address the biggest problems in their local community and take action in:

  • production process (such as the supply of raw materials, the use of refrigerators and ovens),
  • distribution of the produced products to the customers either retail or wholesale (transport by our vehicles)
  • marketing and promotion activities, which are necessary for the development of the cooperative.

The cooperatives main activities are the provision of catering services in its spaces (indoor and outdoor area), the provision of delivery, take away and catering services and the provision of nutritious free meals to vulnerable groups of the population (unemployed and homeless).

Due the utilization of local products, such as herbs, honey, fruits, and cereals, produced in environmentally friendly conditions and converted in the form of a caramel, this coopeartive provides a complete food, without harmful elements, highly nutritional, aiming to control body weight and maintain a good health. Product’s packaging is made by recycled material; and simple storage conditions are needed. The sell price is affordable. The target group is wide and especially addresses to those needed a concentrated healthy high energy food (substituting those high caffeine products), the poor people eating unhealthy foods, those with health problems due to obesity, and people used to eat fast food of low quality.

The pandemic created the need to provide clean air (covid free) indoors. Created by he students of the Experimental School of the University of Thessaloniki, cooperative’s core activity is to provide various stakeholders with devices (that the cooperative produces) to help them achieve clean air supply inside public buildings, such as schools and governmental buildings. The devices will be controlled via an online app that is produced by the cooperative as well.

Students from Experimental School of the University of Thessaloniki developed a cooperative which will address important problems in their community and take action in:

  1. education and information of the population regarding the process and the importance of recycling used sports equipment (Sales – Marketing Department / Personnel and training Department),
  2. provision of special recycling bins at key points of urban and long-distance networks (Procurement Department & Research Department),
  3. collection, maintenance and redistribution of the assembled sports equipment (Production Department & Procurement Department).
Results of the competition

1st place: ergaZWmai – Fryganiotis School

2nd place: Drones on fire – 10th High School of Larisa

3rd place: Bio Life – 10th High School of Larisa