Integra2 volunteered to collaborate on the distribution of food collected in the different charity campaigns in November.
The most consolidated action is 'El Gran Recapte (The Great Collection)', driven by Catalonia’s four Food Banks, which had collected more than 3,075,000 kilos of food just a few hours before the campaign ended on the evening of Saturday the 30th of November. The initiative began on Friday the 29th and was possible thanks to the participation of supermarkets, shopping centres, companies and volunteers. The Food Bank forecasted that the final figure would be higher once online donations and initiatives by companies, sports club, charities and distribution chains were taken into account. The objectives of just two years ago (800,000 kilos, 7,000 volunteers and 600
Collection points) have been left way behind.
This year it has gone beyond 3,000 tonnes, 20,000 volunteers and more than 1,900 collection points.
The Food Banks are non-profit charities, independent from all economic, political or religious ideologies, based on voluntary work, with the objective of recovering surplus food from companies and redistributing it freely to those in need in their area, avoiding all waste and bad use of the food, in order to fight against food poverty and contribute to sustainable development for a cleaner world. Four ethical principles exist in order to make this utopia a reality:
• The primacy of gratuity: food is received and distributed freely. Work by collaborators is voluntary, based on the principle of solidarity.
• The security of fair distribution: always via recognised and official charities, who can guarantee that the food arrives at the right destination.
• The contribution to sustainability and the protection of the environment, avoiding the destruction of food in rubbish dumps.
• The promotion of solidarity with those who need food.
Integra2 Barcelona and its whole traffic team worked voluntarily on the logistics planning of the collections, coordinating the more than 50 vehicles that they took to the ZAL logistics area in El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona), where the operations base was established for the classification of the different products collected (mainly rice, pasta, pulses, oil, long-term preserves and ready-to-serve infant nutrition). Integra2 in Seville and Madrid also collaborated by providing logistical support activity to the different Food Bank organisations in their areas.
The number of people in Spain on the poverty line and who suffer from hunger has dramatically increased in recent years. These people need solidarity and organisational capacity so that they do not become marginalised. It is Integra2’s desire that the Food Banks lose their clients year on year. On the other hand, while this fails to change, we wish to highlight the value of our personnel and the will to contribute our grain of sand to a situation to which the solution is in all of our hands.