Case Study

Social enterprises are an integral and important part of the business sector and produce products and provide services for gaining profit in the same way as any other enterprise. However, an important difference between them and traditional businesses is that social enterprises use the profits generated to solve a social challenge. In the field of food, gastronomy and culinary heritage sector we can find good examples of successful social enterprises in project partner countries that combine their social mission with providing goods and services on the market:

For example in Hungary the Fructus Start Dairy Product Social Cooperative operates as a dairy, they have pasteurized milk, cocoa, kefir, yogurts and cheeses, produce the jam for yoghurts, but they also undertake contract manufacturing with the mission of offering jobs to people in local difficulty. The aim is to gain profit, but it focuses mainly on the employment of local people and to produce a product that is marketable.

Het Ambacht is a restaurant in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Their main activity is to prepare exceptional dishes at an affordable price ( e.g.Organising a free Christmas dinner for people who cannot celebrate Christmas due to lack of financial means, Sports gala Fryslan VIP catering) The restaurant tries to help young people with a distance from the labor market to complete their education and a career in the hospitality industry. The BBBFarming initiative in Spain is a small social enterprise in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector. Its main activity consists of offering services related to organic agriculture and olive growing, with diversification of agricultural activity. Their mission is as follows: “We want to bring organic farmers closer to their people in the city through the web, video streaming and social media.

In Romania the Gyimesi Skanzen Penzion provides accommodation for tourists and also functions as event venue for weddings, camps and various corporate events. It is mainly based on supporting the local economy through the employment of local people, use of local resources and suppliers. Moreover, involving the local community in the programmes, events they offer as well as establishing networks with them and also the visiting guest for future collaboration.

The SunFarm Camp in Bulgaria operates in agri-food and tourism, accommodation and food services, culinary art, as well as entertainment and recreation, providing to customers a variety of accommodation and culinary services. The SunFarm Camp is a project and mission of the association „New Perspectives for Development“ and exists and develops with the belief that the young people are the future of Bulgaria.

The above mentioned examples show that social enterprises have an entrepreneurial approach and pursue a social mission.

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