Pandolea Celebrates Its 20th Anniversary in Rome

This year marks the 20^th anniver­sary of the foun­da­tion of Pandolea, the non-profit asso­ci­a­tion that brings together women engaged in the olive oil sec­tor.

Several ini­tia­tives have been orga­nized for the occa­sion, start­ing with the launch of the ​‘Cyrene project, a pact for wom­en’s health,’ which seeks to pro­mote pos­i­tive syn­er­gies between diverse orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions com­mit­ted to spread­ing healthy eat­ing habits and lifestyle based on the Mediterranean diet.

“Pandolea has been work­ing for twenty years to spread the cul­ture of extra vir­gin olive oil and enhance the role of women in this sec­tor,” President Loriana Abbruzzetti told Olive Oil Times. ​“Healthy eat­ing and the Mediterranean diet, of which extra vir­gin olive oil is the cor­ner­stone, are fun­da­men­tal when it comes to pre­ven­tion and treat­ment of dis­eases that affect women.”

“We already addressed this issue with our col­leagues from var­i­ous Mediterranean coun­tries, and this anniver­sary event seemed to us the right moment to pro­mote this and our group’s other top­ics of inter­est,” she added.

The Cyrene project was pre­sented dur­ing a con­fer­ence held in the frame­work of the 24^th edi­tion of the ​‘Race for the Cure,’ the world’s largest fund­ing event for breast can­cer, at Circo Massimo in Rome, on May 6.

The sem­i­nar saw the par­tic­i­pa­tion of many promi­nent orga­ni­za­tions in the health­care, edu­ca­tion, olive oil and inter­na­tional devel­op­ment sec­tors.

“We are happy that we were able to cel­e­brate and share our val­ues dur­ing the Race for the Cure event, in which we also par­tic­i­pated with our team,” Abbruzzetti said. ​“We are par­tic­u­larly proud of the col­lab­o­ra­tion with [Susan G. Komen Italy orga­ni­za­tion] and the other pres­ti­gious insti­tu­tions which have teamed up with us.”

The project was announced the day before, dur­ing the award cer­e­mony of the sixth Ranieri Filo della Torre International Literary Prize held at the head­quar­ters of the Italian Farmers Confederation (CIA).

Special awards were handed out to Daniela Terribile, breast sur­geon and oncol­o­gist at the Gemelli University Hospital and pres­i­dent of the Susan G. Komen Italy orga­ni­za­tion; Stefania Gori, direc­tor of the IRCCS Oncology Department at the Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital in Negrar di Valpolicella and pres­i­dent of ROPI (Oncological Patient Network Italy) and AIGOM (Italian Association of Multidisciplinary Oncological Groups); and Mariangela Cassano, pres­i­dent of ActionAid Italia.

The lit­er­ary com­pe­ti­tion was estab­lished to pay homage to Filo della Torre, for­mer gen­eral direc­tor of Unaprol, Italy’s national olive oil pro­duc­ers’ orga­ni­za­tion, an impor­tant fig­ure in the sec­tor.

“Emphasizing the strong link between olive oil and cul­ture, pro­mot­ing its knowl­edge and devel­op­ment is the key objec­tive of the com­pe­ti­tion, which over time has become the oppor­tu­nity to announce our projects and col­lab­o­ra­tions,” Abbruzzetti said.

This edi­tion saw the par­tic­i­pa­tion of more than 50 poetry and fic­tion authors. Some of the best works, selected by a jury of experts, have been included in an anthol­ogy. A group of grad­u­at­ing stu­dents, who par­tic­i­pated with sci­en­tific the­ses, were also awarded after the selec­tion made by a com­mit­tee of aca­d­e­mics.

The event also included the prize­giv­ing of the Silver Diploma, the com­pe­ti­tion ded­i­cated to the best extra vir­gin olive oils pro­duced by the stu­dents of agri­cul­tural insti­tutes.

Food edu­ca­tion in schools is one of the core mis­sions of the asso­ci­a­tion – dur­ing the year, Pandolea orga­nizes meet­ings with stu­dents all over Italy, and in other coun­tries, such events are being orga­nized by the net­work Pandolea International.

Founded in 2020 with the sup­port of the International Olive Council, Pandolea International focuses on sus­tain­able devel­op­ment as a key ele­ment of olive oil cul­ture, in which human health, intended as phys­i­cal, men­tal and social well-being, is strictly con­nected to the plan­et’s health. Currently, it gath­ers women from coun­tries of the Mediterranean basin, includ­ing Italy, Jordan, Tunisia, Greece, Libya, Egypt and Spain.

“Our inter­na­tional net­work is open to wel­come groups of women who share our val­ues of coop­er­a­tion and shar­ing from any coun­try,” Abbruzzetti said. ​“In recent years, we have all been over­whelmed by global events that dis­rupted our pri­vate lives and the man­age­ment of our com­pa­nies.”

“The vision of Pandolea is that we can bet­ter and faster over­come dif­fi­cult moments if we do it together,” she added. ​“And in this spirit, we are putting to good use the dia­logue and col­lab­o­ra­tions that we have had over the years with asso­ci­a­tions and insti­tu­tions, car­ry­ing out an activ­ity of edu­ca­tion and involve­ment of many peo­ple, start­ing from school chil­dren and teenagers, through tast­ing courses, edu­ca­tional itin­er­aries and direct expe­ri­ence of what the ​‘real’ high qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil is and how it can improve our life.”