The solidarity initiative No one without food came from the hand of Sheila Sánchez, a Gran Canaria resident in Tenerife, who when donating her son’s clothes to a family that asked for help through social networks, realized that the need was even greater: They needed to fill the fridge with food. The impact was such that he decided to act to solve the problem and created a profile on Facebook under the slogan Nobody without food to which other people joined to collaborate. The witness was picked up in Gran Canaria by Katy Morales. Both teams help more than fifty families between the two islands.
“Most of the collaborators are from humble neighborhoods; For example, I am from El Polvorín, and we know the needs that exist but we did not imagine that it had worsened to such an extent with the coronavirus pandemic, ”says Katy Morales, a young mother who, like Sheila, was used to donate the clothes that their children left when they grew up, but was impressed to hear the video that Sheila posted on Facebook denouncing that there were families who could not fill the refrigerators or cupboards after the economic crisis caused by covid-19 and that, to that had to be remedied. That was what encouraged her to follow Sheila’s trail and coordinate the Gran Canaria group even from La Rioja, where she works as a waitress and studies Electromechanics.
The solidarity initiative was soon joined by Rafael Vega, Yuli Pérez, Estefanía Melián, Victoria Losada and Josué Guillén.
The initiative was created a few months ago in Tenerife by a resident of Gran Canaria
No one without food is one of the many citizen groups that have emerged spontaneously as a result of the economic crisis that has caused the health pandemic which, if something has revealed, is the fragility in which many families live in our country, including those who have a salary with which they apparently make ends meet in normal times.
Functioning
The equipment works thanks to donations from individuals. Employees collect the food and basic necessities that anonymous people bring them such as oil, potatoes, eggs, sugar, cookies, milk and toiletries and keep them at home since they do not have a place to store them. Every fortnight they make a delivery to the families according to their needs.
In Gran Canaria they serve more than 35 families, both from the capital and from other municipalities, while in Tenerife there are 20.
Families get in touch with them through social media. The minimum requirements are that they have a precarious economic situation and that they do not receive help from any administration. To avoid the picaresque, they go through a telephone interview to find out what their reality and their needs are and even visit them if necessary. Intuition usually works since they cannot request any type of paper that proves their precarious situation as they are not a social entity.
“In the speech people give themselves away, you notice it in how they ask for your help, in the desperation in their words. Some even show you documentation that they are unemployed, that they have asked for help, although you don’t ask for it ”, says the Gran Canaria coordinator on how they detect emergencies.
The only condition that they ask families is that they take a photo or post a video when receiving the donations so that the donors can check that their generosity has reached their destination without the need to identify themselves, if they do not want to.
“In the families we serve there is a little bit of everything. People who have become unemployed because of the pandemic, who with the ERTE do not arrive to buy food or supplies for the children because with it they must pay the rent; others that have dragged on critical situations for a long time that lead them to go to assistance services ”, explains Katy regarding the profile of the families that touch her facebook or instagram, in which there are also pensioners and the unemployed.
The young mother denounces that some of the families have requested help to eat from social entities but that they have given them an appointment within three months. “What happens, that at that time you don’t eat, you don’t pay for electricity? the Erte or the unemployed arrive to pay the rent and little else and the rest becomes unfeasible. And families have no choice but to prioritize their needs ”, he reflects on the precarious situation in which many of them live, even with children.
They don’t take money
No one without food only collects food and basic necessities. And on more than one occasion they even receive fresh vegetables and fruit donated by individuals. At the beginning they also admitted clothing but given the surplus of garments they ruled out this type of donation as they did not have any warehouse.
The group does not accept money of any kind. “No type of financial donation is collected because we understand that money vitiates everything or disappears”, Katy points out about the philosophy with which the group has been created.
In Gran Canaria they have been operating for a month and already serve more than 30 families
No one without food not only delivers food to families, but cares for them, listens to them and encourages them to move forward. “Some are so jaded that if there isn’t a helping hand to help them socially and psychologically they can’t get up. I have seen myself in a similar situation and it is very difficult to get up if you do not have that hand, because the forces are leaving ”, adds Katy, while she questions why no public administration helps these families, some of them in“ situations of exclusion Social”.
The group, which has been surprised by the number of families that have requested its help, does not intend, at the moment, to become a social entity or NGO despite its altruistic work. “We are not people who have money or time to spare, we have even had to put money from our pockets to pay for gasoline and take the groceries to the family, we have the phone open 24 hours a day,” says Katy. “Ideally, the administrations will address their problem and not depend on us. No one would have to go through not having anything to eat. You break when you hear them ”.
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