THE Madrid Food Bank foundation exists because
in the Community of Madrid there is food waste
and poverty. This is the origin of our entity, which
dates back to 1994. We are celebrating our
25th anniversary, a date that will mark a milestone in the
wake of the crisis caused by COVID-19. We have had to
reinvent ourselves.
The main activity of the Food Bank is to promote a
circular economy (avoiding the destruction of surpluses
and food waste) and to appeal to the solidarity of citizens
and institutions, raising awareness of the needs of the
most disadvantaged. At the present time, we cannot
rely solely on food surpluses and we are forced, now
more than ever, to seek the collaboration of companies,
institutions and individuals in order to meet the demand
for food. If in February 2020 we were distributing 1.4 million kilos per
month, we are now at two million. We are providing a daily meal to
190,000 people who do not have enough income to buy food. The
number of beneficiaries has increased by 46 per cent in the last three
months. And everything has happened very fast.
Gema Escrivá
de Romaní
General Manager
of the Madrid Food
Bank
We still do not know the extent of the post-COVID social crisis,
but the indicators are not good, especially it we bear in mind that
the latest European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) report on poverty
(2008-2018), published in October 2019, indicated that one out of
every six people in the Community of Madrid was living below the
poverty line. Of all these people, 500,000 lived in severe poverty
(income below 355 euros per month) and 312,000 in Severe Material
Deprivation (cannot afford at least four of the nine basic consumption
items set by the EU, for example, eating protein twice a week).
There has been a lot of talk about “hunger queues”. Queues
that already existed and are now being joined by new people. Many
may wonder where these people came from; the answer is that they
were invisible before. If a soup kitchen used to gather 400 people
a day to sit at the table, now these people
are outside queuing and social distancing,
and there are probably more than 580
waiting. The coronavirus has given visibility
to a reality that existed and of which many
people were not aware. We were living
inside a bubble that COVID-19 has burst.
We are a volunteer-based Foundation
with 408 permanent volunteers with an
average age of 65. Our profiles are varied:
there are volunteers who have had a
brilliant professional career and others
whose professional development has been
more modest. There are also many military men and
women collaborating with our institution who bring a lot
of rigour and order to the processes; active, efficient,
principled people. All of them are empathetic with the
underprivileged and have a very clear mission.
When we had to send the volunteers home in March
—as most of them were at risk because of their age— we
suddenly hit a wall. We launched an appeal for volunteers
and, thanks to the solidarity of many people, especially
young people, our four warehouses are operating more
than ever. The new volunteers are led by our contract
staff, they work on the front line and, thanks to all of them,
the distribution of food from the warehouses has been
guaranteed.
We have also had the help of many volunteers to deliver
meals to soup kitchens for their subsequent distribution. As of 18
June, we have provided, thanks to the collaboration with chef José
Andrés’s NGO, World Central Kitchen, more than 620,000 meals.
The numbers in this crisis are overwhelming.
I do not want to hide the fact that we suffered a lot, especially
in March and April, because we had a big challenge ahead of
us, with very poor visibility and a lot of confusion. Lack of human
resources, teleworking with scarce IT resources, lack of protective
measures for our people, thousands of requests for food aid, and
overwhelmed charities unable to collect the food that was beginning
to expire and could not reach the beneficiaries.
We have launched an appeal to mobilize everyone and to
avoid stock-outs in our warehouses. There are countless signs of
solidarity from companies and individuals with many donations, but
we still need as much help as we can get. To solve the great logistic
problem of transporting the food to the charities we continue to
count on the help of private companies and the Armed Forces.
On 4 June, we were very fortunate to
receive at our headquarters a visit from the
Minister of Defence, the Secretary of State
for Defence and representatives of the
Operations Command, the 12th Brigade
Guadarrama, the 11th Logistic Support
Group, the Paratrooper Brigade and the
Royal Guard, as well as other people from
the Minister’s private office. During this
visit we were able to express our deep
appreciation for the help received through
Operation Balmis, both in the transportation
of food and in the disinfection of our facilities.
O p i n i o n
THE ARMED FORCES HAVE SUPPORTED THE FOOD BANKS SINCE THE
BEGINNING OF OPERATION BALMIS
Solidarity with the most
disadvantaged
The coronavirus
has given
visibility to a
reality of which
many were
not aware
August 2020 Revista Española de Defensa 13