Dinner is served at 1-2-3 euros
Making delicious and balanced food accessible to struggling families. That's the aim of the 'Dinner is served in 1-2-3 euros' project, a cooperation between Colruyt Lowest Prices, social welfare institutions and local authorities in which 9,200 families have already participated.
How does it work?
Social welfare organisations such as the OCMW (Public Centre for Social Welfare), Centrum Algemeen Welzijn (General Welfare Centre) or Kind en Gezin provide information without obligation to vulnerable families with children. Families who register voluntarily receive a Colruyt recipe booklet every fortnight, with six easy recipes and the corresponding shopping lists. Each recipe is good for three generous portions and costs a maximum of 1, 2 or 3 euros per portion. This includes the price of the whole pack, even though sometimes less is needed. This way people know in advance exactly what they will pay at the check-out.
Balanced recipes
Colruyt's culinary team compiles the recipes, and pays special attention to ensuring a full, varied, balance, child-friendly and tasty meal can be made.
Each recipe booklet contains dishes with meat, fish and vegetarian preparations. All tastes are catered for. The cooking team keeps the recipes as simpleas possible, and easy to prepare for everyone. Budget-friendly and sustainable seasonal products are used as much as possible Finally, the recipe booklet also provides useful tips, for example how to involve the children in cooking, how to cut up vegetables or how to use leftovers.
From a local to an national project
‘Dinner is served in 1-2-3 euros’ was launched in 2015 as part of a Colruyt pilot project, in co-creation with the city and the Public Centre for Social Welfare of Kortrijk. After a positive test with 144 families, Colruyt decided to roll out the project nationally from the end of 2016. Meanwhile, Colruyt works with numerous social welfare organisations in several Belgian communes.
In January 2020, the project won the ‘Ik ben meer dan mijn kassaticket’ (I am more than my receipt) award, which recognises initiatives by Belgian supermarkets to make shopping healthier, fairer and environmentally-friendlier.
participating families in 2022
participating communes in 2022
Fruitful collaboration
The project brings together the best of the partners, for the benefit of struggling families. The social welfare organisations know the families and are familiar with their needs. Colruyt in turn has extensive expertise in cooking tasty and balanced food. Together, they create a structural and sustainable solution to increase participants' self-sufficiency and to make healthier food more accessible.
Some organisations go a step further and organise, for example, joint cooking sessions or guided tours of Colruyt stores with tips on how to shop efficiently and affordably.
