Ep 82 / Have you noticed that on two Saturdays we will be welcoming the new year? 2022 is hot on our heels! We are doing a final sprint that is leaving us breathless! It is being a year of growth, of challenges, new

Have you noticed that on two Saturdays we will be welcoming the new year? 2022 is hot on our heels! We are doing a final sprint that is leaving us breathless! It has been a year of growth, of challenges, new projects... and in these last weeks of some unforeseen events. And the good side? The love, support and trust of all the people on the other side.

You have shown us many times and you just did it a few days ago, when we celebrated Thanksgiving. If you remember, at zubi we don't do Black Friday. We prefer to “Give Thanks”, and every year on those dates we donate a percentage of our sales to a social action. This year it seemed like a good idea to allocate 15% of all sales to Madrid Food Bank , a foundation that has been working with people without resources for more than 25 years and currently delivers food to more than 190,000 people in the Community of Madrid.

Well, we have great news to give you, because thanks to your purchases we are going to donate almost €3,400 to the Food Bank and we are very happy to be able to contribute this grain of sand to the great work of this foundation. Furthermore, we have been lucky enough to be able to see their work firsthand and visit their headquarters. The Food Bank has opened its doors to us and today we open the doors of our podcast to chat with Mila Benito, Marketing and Communication Director of the Madrid Food Bank.

The 3,400 euros that we have donated from zubi represent 4,000 kilos of food! "This aid is very important because, in addition, when we help a family with their shopping basket, it provides relief so they can pay other bills... And that helps them a lot."

Without a doubt, the data that Mila has given us makes even more evident the need for a foundation like hers and even more so since the pandemic which, as she told us, “has accentuated a crisis that we have already been struggling with since 2008.”

Chatting with Mila we have discovered that the Food Bank works on many fronts. On the one hand, it aims to raise awareness in society about food waste and lack of resources; and at the same time, the Food Bank promotes the circular economy to avoid food waste in all phases of the food chain

Last year, of the 23 million meals the Food Bank distributed, more than 11 million were recovery foods, which would have been destroyed. “We take advantage of all that surplus to get it to people who need it, also promoting the circular economy.”

One of the things that impressed us most when visiting their headquarters and in the interview with Mila Benito was discovering the great logistics they are capable of moving: this year they have distributed no less than 26 million kilos of food! The Food Bank has several sources of food supply that it then distributes and delivers to the 565 social entities with which it works. “We are organized like a large food distribution company would be. We are a foundation with a business mentality, otherwise this would not work.”

A great job to reach thousands of people, many more than we can imagine, because the pandemic has not only increased these numbers, it has also exacerbated the need of many families. And all of them have been joined by a group that had never needed help before, many middle-class, single-parent and single-parent households, young Spanish couples who lived from day to day and who suddenly, due to a setback in life, became unemployed and They don't make ends meet. “These people were not used to asking for help until they received a financial blow. This is the new profile, especially young Spanish people with children. And they are people who also need a lot of support so that they can re-enter the labor market.”

The pandemic and confinement were the trigger. “At that moment, an underground economy that already existed emerged and we suddenly found ourselves face to face.” And it was then that the Food Bank experienced an avalanche of requests for help unprecedented in its 25 years of history, a new situation that they had to face quickly. “When you find yourself in such a tremendous emergency situation, you also realize the ability you have to reorganize.” And boy did they do it, because at that time they served 236,000 people and, even today, the Food Bank itself has to buy food to meet those needs, even having received large donations.

Can you imagine how this foundation experienced the pandemic and confinement? Mila Benito told us in this talk how tremendous those days were, receiving more than 100 calls a day from distressed people. And how could they act? “Our first drama was volunteering because our average age of volunteers is 73 years old. Go figure! We asked everyone to stay at home. We opened with the minimum number of people but, in addition, food had to be distributed and there was no mobility. That was our great difficulty. Fortunately we had a lot of help from other groups that helped us with the distribution and also responded to our call for young volunteers.”

Without a doubt, the pandemic has aggravated an already serious situation. In 2020, 1 in 5 people in the Community of Madrid lived in poverty or risk of social exclusion, 15% of the total population in poverty and 395,000 people in severe poverty. “The figures are very hard and we find an increase from severe poverty to severe material deprivation, which is the sector that has the most needs and with whom we normally work. Poverty has become harder. There are things that seem very basic to us but that these people cannot afford, such as heating their house or eating protein twice a week.”

Mila Benito tells us in the podcast how they are experiencing this situation and explains the great work they do to create social awareness about food waste and waste, as well as the problems that arise from the lack of food resources. We are the seventh country in the European Union that wastes the most, did you know that? And there the Food Bank works with the new generations. “In addition to taking advantage of the food that would be destroyed, we do a lot of awareness work among children and adolescents so that they consume responsibly. We are very committed to reducing food waste and most of it happens in homes, we buy more than we need to consume; The children get used to it and in the end it is food that goes to the trash. The home is the main source of waste.”

In this opportunity that we have had in Zubi to meet and visit the Madrid Food Bank, we have also discovered the great human team behind it. No management position in the foundation is paid and its basis is volunteerism (with an average age of 60 years): 403 volunteers and 33 hired people today form this great family. “When I arrived it seemed like a miracle to me that all the machinery was moved by volunteers.” All of them are very committed people who in this last year, and due to the serious situation experienced by the pandemic, have voluntarily worked up to 10 and 12 hours a day.

And maybe you, who are on the other side, are thinking about helping in some way. Collaborating with the Food Bank is very simple and they explain everything on their website, where you can contact them: www.bamadrid.org

All private aid, no matter how small, always adds up. Look, 5 euros is 7 kilos of food and with the work of the Food Bank that donation is greatly optimized. In addition, with financial donations they can also buy expensive products that they also need and that normally do not arrive, such as formula milk for the 7,400 infants that this foundation helps. And we can all add, contribute or help from whatever is in our hands. Because thanks to that, and with the sum of “many little things”, great things can be achieved.

And with this message we remain in this last podcast of 2021. To all of you who are on the other side, thank you for continuing with us in this fifth season! We give you a few weeks' vacation and we return to the podcast after Three Kings. On Saturday, January 8, we will be here, chatting and digesting the Roscón that we plan to have.

From zubi, the entire team wishes you a very Merry Christmas and that you have a lot of fun these days. Ready for the new start? We are going to get going to say goodbye to the year and start 2022 strong.

We're back on the podcast in January! A huge kiss!

Podcast note. If you want to learn more about the work of the Madrid Food Bank, collaborate, donate or help in any way, visit their website and contact them at www.bamadrid.org