Fermín Cabanillas I Sevilla, (EFE) their social work, since at the moment they only have resources to attend requests for three months.
A complicated situation, because although it is true that in the facilities of this Foundation in Mercasevilla the movement is incessant, right now there are real difficulties to guarantee that all the people who need their work are attended to, after providing the basics to feed themselves in 2022 to 43,000 inhabitants from all parts of the province.
In a quick tour of the non-perishable food storage warehouses, the entity’s Head of Strategy, Operations and Finance, Juan Manuel Román, sums up the situation, who, in essence, points out that “some people have stopped donating and others are donating less”, and that means that, in order to reach all corners of their aid contribution, they have had to reduce the size of the batches that are delivered.
And it is not just anything, because all this means that, no matter how many things are in sight to be delivered, in the warehouses of the Seville Food Bank there is only an assortment for the next three months and inflation takes its toll. If in three months nobody contributes anything or the aid is greatly reduced, we would have to consider closing the doors, and that premise does not even cross the minds of the people who carry out this solidarity work.
A basket of 13 basic foods
And the whole problem is based on the increase in the cost of “the basic basket”, as this spokesperson defines what is essential to feed any person, which, on average in supermarkets, “has become 20 to 22% more expensive, and it is a a quarter or fifth of what had been donating”, so that “people who donated before can’t now, and the people who continue to donate require much more money to continue doing so”.
This basket, from the point of view of the Bank, is made up of 13 basic foods, those necessary to provide the carbohydrates and proteins essential to human beings, made up, depending on each person who contributes, of milk, rice, pasta, legumes or oil: “We do not intend to meet all food needs, because we do not have the capacity to reach so much, but we do have an important part of the needs of the users of the Food Bank,” he says.
A stop is also made to analyze where the help comes from, which has “many types”, and which have companies, both producers and distributors, individuals, groups, supermarkets, schools, institutes, or companies that organize collection campaigns. of food, together with economic donors who make regular or occasional donations, which serve both to guarantee deliveries and to help maintain the fifteen people it has on staff, which reaches up to 130 if we talk about volunteers.
Juan Manuel Román makes a note to point out that an incentive for donations is the tax exemption, since, at a maximum of 150 euros, there is an 80% deduction, “so what it really costs me is 30, and therefore Above that amount, the tax exemption is reduced between 40 and 35 percent depending on the history of donations, which is always significant.”
Operation Spring Kilo
Thus, little by little, the enormous shelves of the Bank’s headquarters in Mercasevilla are filling up, which, on two occasions a year, receive extraordinary contributions through the Operation Kilo de Primavera campaigns, scheduled this year for June, and the weekend campaign. of the year, which help, and a lot, so that the more than 250 collaborating entities bring everything they need to the 43,000 families that benefit from the aid.
In reality, aid to the Food Bank can be done in many ways to overcome inflation, either by giving them a kilo of lentils or in euros to pay the electricity bill for the warehouses, although the spokesman emphasizes that “the money for The purchase of food only goes to the purchase of food, but there are entities or subsidies that help to cover the expenses that we have”.
With this, with its volunteers, who collaborate a few hours a day or many a week, and with the desire to help many people, on many occasions anonymously, the Food Bank survives, but now it is asking for help so that its work it is not diminished by a global crisis, which causes a serious specific problem at the tables of those who have less. EFE