Cuppa with a Conscience at Nyon’s Soliderie Café-bar

La Soliderie café-bar in Nyon: the café sits adjacent to the grocery store housed in a container left over from the city’s Visions du Réel film festival. Photo: Delphine Schacher.

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IN SEPTEMBER 2024, after two years of construction by a determined band of volunteers, La Soliderie coffee shop-bar and adjacent grocery store opened for business in the west corner of the Martinet parking lot adjacent to Nyon’s train station (on the Jura side).

The café-grocery store evolved from the efforts of the non-profit Soliderie Association that originated with Nyon’s Covid-era food distribution effort in 2020 followed by the city’s temporary grocery store, which closed in February 2021.

The need for a solidarity grocery store in the area remained and the idea for a permanent installation took shape.

The Association worked hard to find a location in the city center, to secure the necessary funding and to collect building materials. Construction took place from November 2022 to August 2024 thanks to a participatory project by a group of dedicated volunteers and the collaboration of partner companies.

Multi-pronged social objectives

The Association provides assistance to accredited persons living in precarious situations by focusing directly on alleviating poverty and malnutrition.

The Soliderie grocery store offers fresh fruit, vegetables, eggs, bread and dry staples such as rice and pasta as well as personal hygiene products. These items are unsold supermarket merchandise and local products either donated or sold at low prices. The shop also purchases goods to sell at the store.

This is where the coffee shop-bar comes in, because proceeds from the sale of menu items enjoyed indoors in a simple, airy setting or outdoors on the spring/summer terrace go to stock the grocery store’s shelves.

Community and cultural ambitions

The Association’s goals extend beyond nourishing body and mind. It also works to alleviate isolation and stigma by creating a centre of social diversity, where people can participate in community, cultural, and artistic get togethers. To that end, planned free or low-cost activities bring participants together throughout the year.

The Association welcomes volunteers to help out wherever the need exists, for example to donate baked goods for the café-bar or work in the grocery store. Financial donations are welcomed as are opportunities to partner with like-minded social institutions.

Even buying a ‘cuppa’ coffee or a glass of wine, beer or spritz at the Soliderie café-bar can contribute to a healthier and more equitable community. It’s an easy way to do our part and enjoy ourselves at the same time. A veritable “win-win”.

FYI: the cafe-bar is open Wednesday and Thursday from 9h-22h and Friday and Saturday from 9h-midnight. Find La Soliderie on Facebook and Instagram.