2017 ECKART donation: BMW Group supports “ÉPICES” organisation. Cooking as a means of cross-generational integration, Dr. Peter: “At the BMW Group, we encourage innovation.”

“At the BMW Group, we encourage innovation. The project created by
the Haeberlin family is an innovative approach to integrating very
different people with a lasting impact,” said Dr. Nicolas Peter,
member of the Board of Management of BMW AG, responsible for Finance,
and patron of the ECKART, explaining the endowment. “Openness and
integration are also an integral part of our corporate culture at the
BMW Group. That is why we are supporting “ÉPICES” with this cash award.” 

“ÉPICES” was founded in 2009 by Isabelle Haeberlin, wife of the
renowned chef Marc Haeberlin. The programme uses cooking to bring
mostly young people back into the heart of society. To this end,
national institutions in France identify around 300 school drop-outs,
unemployed youth, and young people with problems every year. “ÉPICES”
uses cookery to teach the basics of nutrition and cooking, but also to
promote a sense of responsibility, self-organisation and forward
planning. In this way, the programme improves the young people’s
chances of finding a job and integrating into society.

The Haeberlin family won the ECKART for “Art of Cookery” back in
2004. Last year, “ÉPICES” was nominated for the ECKART Alumni Award.
Through the new endowment, which was introduced in 2017 and provides
50,000 euros in each of the four award categories, as well as for the
project of a previous award-winner, the BMW Group seeks to send a
signal with the ECKART and take responsibility. The donation is not
paid directly to the award-winners: Instead, they each propose a
social or sustainable project of their choice to be endowed in the
name of the BMW Group. The selection is made in conjunction with the
ECKART Jury.

The ECKART