Since last June, I have been part-time at L’Ermitage, Fondacio’s head office, to support the site’s ecological transition. With all the activities of the Ermitage reception, the missions are just as different from each other.
On the food division, our objective is to offer more sustainable and quality food, in particular with local products (within a radius of 200 km, ideally). Also, we are working to raise awareness of the challenges of sustainable food with posters placed in the canteen and a self-service Bio Consom’acteurs guide. We are also in the process of offering fair trade coffee. We will also quickly forget the tea bags to offer herbal teas from the garden.
Outside, the Hermitage is a 1.5 hectare site in the heart of Versailles and in fact, we benefit from large green spaces. In order to enter into ecological coherence, we bet that we could bring the St Joseph meadow to life, whether it be a source of vegetable production with the establishment of a vegetable garden . After the shared Hummingbird gardens, created almost 2 years ago, a 200m² mandala vegetable garden has been created since autumn. We have just received the seeds, we will soon start the first sowing. All of the production aims to supply the catering division. In addition, we are trying to rethink the overall layout of the site to have edible bushes, spaces for aromatic plants, etc. We are in contact with the Higher Institute of the Environment and the Higher School of Landscaping of Versailles to think about these questions.
L’Ermitage is also events, gatherings, meetings . The Covid-19 has somewhat upset our way of seeing things but has not stopped us, far from it! Every two months, we offer film sharing with a theme related to ecological transition. The next one will be held on March 17 at 8pm. A first Gratiferia (free festival) was organized at the end of September, the conference cycle with the Center Huit has been launched since February and we will soon be launching sewing workshops with the residents and volunteers of the Ermitage. As soon as the situation allows us, we will offer face-to-face Climate Frescoes, and certainly other evenings on ecological transition.
In addition, for several months now, we have been part of the Label Eglise Verte approach, which drives a real dynamic with a team of happily invested volunteers. Nature walks (for the general public) will also see the light of day shortly and we are entering into contact with other parishes, dioceses to share our values of integral ecology.
Finally, we work on our presence in the territory and meet local actors in order to reach the greatest number of people. The Third Place of the Hermitage aims to be an inspiring center, a resource place where we find elements of answers to environmental and social issues.
This non-exhaustive list of missions aims to be in ecological coherence, to live a human, relational and environmental ecology. Rich in encounters, social ties, challenges and ambitions, I see this year at the Ermitage as a real chance, an opportunity to imagine a desirable future for everyone, to build the world of tomorrow.
