Ceinture Alimentaire Charleroi Métropole (CACM)

A Territorial Cluster for Sustainable and Solidarity-Based Food Systems

Partner Organisation

REVES

Location

Belgium / Hainaut / Charleroi Métropole

Contact

Elisa Mancinelli
secretariat@revesnetwork.eu

About

The Ceinture Alimentaire Charleroi Métropole (CACM) is a territorial Cluster for Social and Ecological Innovation (CSEI) operating across 30 municipalities in the peri-urban and rural hinterland of Charleroi, in Wallonia, Belgium. Coordinated by SAW-B (Solidarité des Alternatives Wallonnes et Bruxelloises), the CACM functions as a territorial facilitator committed to building a local, sustainable, and environmentally responsible food system, rooted in the principles of the social and solidarity economy.

The cluster brings together a diverse range of stakeholders, such as farmers, distributors, retailers, associations, public authorities, and citizens, under a shared governance model anchored in collective decision-making and inter-cooperation. Through concrete actions such as a logistics hub, a local retail outlet (Carolostore), and a Food Policy Council (Conseil de Politique Alimentaire), the CACM seeks to transition the Charleroi metropolitan area towards food independence, ecological resilience and inclusive economic development. Its bottom-up design, multi-stakeholder architecture and combination of social and ecological goals make it a compelling model of CSEI at the territorial scale.

Local challenge

The Charleroi Métropole area presents a complex socio-economic and ecological landscape. Historically marked by industrial decline, the region faces significant challenges related to food insecurity, limited access to affordable fresh produce, and a disconnect between local agricultural potential and urban consumption patterns. The territory straddles two provinces and encompasses both a highly urbanised northern zone and a more rural southern belt, characterised by diversified agricultural land with significant productive potential. Despite this agricultural capacity, local food systems remain fragmented. Short supply chains are underdeveloped, market access for small producers is constrained, and awareness of sustainable food consumption among citizens is uneven. Social and economic vulnerabilities are compounded by structural weaknesses in governance coordination across municipal and provincial boundaries. Against this backdrop, the CACM was established to bridge the gap between local production and consumption, catalyse cooperation among dispersed actors, and build a resilient, inclusive, and environmentally respectful food system. The initiative responds to challenges that no single organisation could address alone, positioning itself as a systemic enabler of territorial transition through social economy principles and multi-stakeholder engagement.

Partnership model & governance

The CACM operates through a participatory governance model that brings together the full spectrum of actors involved in the local food system. The cluster’s governance structure centres on the Conseil de Politique Alimentaire (CPA), which is a multi-stakeholder Food Policy Council comprising farmers, distributors, traders, civic associations, public authorities, and citizen representatives. The CPA defines strategic priorities and identifies the most relevant levers for territorial action, ensuring that the cluster remains responsive to local needs and collectively owned.

SAW-B, as the coordinator of the CACM, serves as the institutional anchor of the cluster, combining its roles as a social economy federation, consulting agency, and continuing education organisation. SAW-B mobilises, supports, and accompanies social economy actors while fostering the principles of fair pricing, human balance, and logistics development.

Key institutional partners include Charleroi Métropole, which plays the role of public federator through its FOOD.C strategy, and Biowallonie, which contributed through the CADI project. The financial backbone is provided by Wallonie Entreprendre (formerly Sowalfin), with additional support from the Walloon Region under its Alternativ’ES strategy.

The governance model is notably built on the principle of inter-cooperation: actors voluntarily choose to work together, sharing expertise and resources, without any single entity holding dominant control. This decentralised, multi-level governance ensures adaptability while maintaining coherence around shared ecological and social values.

Main activities of the cluster

The CACM develops its work through a set of interconnected initiatives that address the full value chain of sustainable food systems:

Logistics Hub: A 2,000 m² facility for storage, processing, and marketing of local food products, scheduled to open in June 2025. The hub will include a vegetable garden, a processing workshop, a sales counter, and a dispatching service for supplying local authorities and food professionals.

Carolostore: A retail store offering products from local producers and artisans at fair prices, created in direct response to citizens’ demand identified through participatory consultations.

Food Policy Council (CPA): A permanent participatory governance body that convenes the full range of food system actors to define collective priorities and mobilise territorial levers for systemic change.

Awareness and Territorial Animation: Campaigns and outreach activities to mobilise local actors and citizens towards a collectively transformed food system, emphasising health, fairness, and environmental respect.

Knowledge Exchange and Capacity Building: Through SAW-B’s training programmes and facilitation services, the cluster continuously strengthens its members’ capacities in cooperative governance, sustainable business models, and social impact assessment.

These activities are designed to reinforce one another, creating a systemic impact across production, distribution, governance, and consumption.

Results and Impact

The CACM has achieved significant milestones in building a territorial food system grounded in social and ecological innovation:

Territorial Coverage

The cluster operates across 30 municipalities of Charleroi Métropole, serving a catchment population of approximately 600,000 inhabitants.

Governance Innovation

The establishment of the CPA has provided a replicable model of participatory food governance, enabling diverse actors to contribute to regional food policy in a structured, inclusive format.

Financial Sustainability

The cluster has secured public funding from the Walloon Region, totalling 1.3 million euros shared among three food belts, recognising the CACM as one of the most structuring initiatives in Wallonia.

Infrastructure Development

The Logistics Hub — a flagship investment — is set to transform local food logistics, enabling small producers to access markets previously out of reach.

Retail Innovation

The Carolostore offers a tangible commercial channel for local and sustainable products at accessible prices, addressing both the economic needs of producers and the purchasing constraints of consumers.

The CACM was presented as an inspiring CSEI practice at the PARI Capacity Building Workshop (Brussels, January 2025), where it served as a field study for partner territories seeking to develop their own clusters. Its model of collaborative governance, ecological orientation, and social economy embeddedness was recognised as a benchmark for rural and peri-urban CSEI development across Europe.

Funded by the European Union. The views, information, documentation, figures and opinions expressed in this document are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EISMEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

PARI – Project ID: 1011698037