Caravan Without Borders resumes food deliveries
Faced with worsening instability in the canton, the Geneva Association is asking for donations. Annadanam will be held on Saturday.
This Sunday, at Saint-Clotilde Church, next to a food collection station organized by Caravan Without Borders and Parish, around seventy people queued to receive a free hot meal.
Pierre Alboy
When food bags were distributed in Vernets in 2020, the queue did not last more than 2 kilometers. But it’s long: this Sunday afternoon, more than seventy people are waiting in front of the church of Sainte-Claudelde in La. connection The parish offers a free hot meal every Sunday until the end of May. The operation is carried out with Silvana Mastromatio, head of Caravan Without Borders, which launched the first food distribution in April 2020, before being extended to Vernets due to the scale of needs.
The queue for the Sunday meal has been getting longer by the week and despite many calls for help being sent to the parish and the caravan, their leaders have decided to reorganize the food distribution. A call for donations has been launched (Read below).
Mixed users
This Sunday at noon, we see diverse profiles of different origins – foreign and Swiss -, of different ages, with a few children. “Retired, unemployed or people in the domestic economy, with an insecure legal status or not, they cannot buy food after paying fixed bills, especially heating, Silvana. Mastromatteo. Food packages are not enough for the whole week,” he said.
These people in need can receive hot food on site, fruit, some clothes from the community locker room installed in the basement, all private donations and contributions from the civil society, notes Sandra Golay, parish president.
“It’s hard for everyone right now.”
In front of the Sainte-Claudilde entrance, a stand manned by volunteers waits for donations. They come little by little. At the base, the harvest that started on April 20 has yielded very little for now. Similar calls to Ukraine and Turkey made it possible to collect tons of food… the holiday season probably played a role, says the caravan leader. “But mostly I think it’s tough for everybody.”
The president adds an “attractive” increase in food prices to the equation. With inflation, these have risen. “We compared the prices of some products between April 2020 and today: some have gone up by more than two times. In 2020, we paid 90 cents for a packet of rice, which was 1 F. Today is 30; Pasta went from 85 centimes to 1 fr. 10.”
Donations will be brought to the Parish of Sainte-Clotille until April 28. The bags will be distributed the day after tomorrow.
Pierre Alboy
He raises another point: “They also say that we mainly help undocumented immigrants. We maintain insecurity, in a certain way. We have no business maintaining it, but there it is! Not all people who come here are homeless. Even so, everyone has the right to help and eat.
For Silvana Mastromatio, authorities have not learned the lessons of the pandemic. “I’m afraid the queue next Saturday will be very long. And we cannot support those who are there.
Nearly 14,000 food aid beneficiaries each week
Other social aid actors also report increasing instability. “Many who have failed to absorb the cost-of-living increase related to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and its aftermath have joined the ranks of vulnerable populations that have emerged with the wave of Covid-19,” he said recently. Area Trust. Food aid recipients are still increasing: around 14,000 adults and children in vulnerable situations will claim this support every week in 2022, up from 12,000 the previous year.
Partage distributed 3.5 million meals in 2020, the equivalent of 2.8 million. As for the demand for food aid shopping bags, it has been steadily rising over the past few months, reaching 23,000 shopping bags in February 2023. 18,300 in the same month last year.
Collection will be held till April 28. Donations will be dropped off at Sainte-Clotilde Parish from 8am to 8pm. The following are preferable: oil, flour, oats, semolina, rice, chickpeas, lentils, sardines, pasta, canned tuna, canned tomatoes, eggs, chocolate, biscuits and health products, especially for young children. Distribution will be held in the panchayat on April 29 from 10 am to 1 pm.
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