ORevery year, a day comes, usually the last Saturday in November, this year Saturday 15thin which shopping at the supermarket ceases to be just an act of consumption. It’s when a gentle voice, behind an orange bib, reminds us that for many even a liter of milk can be an out of reach expense. Listening to that voice is not a waste of time, but an invitation to change the way we fill our cart. Tomorrow, this gesture will be repeated in thousands of stores throughout Italy, thanks to National Food Collection Daypromoted by ETS Food Bank Foundation.
Food Collection: a network that holds the country together
The Food Collection is not just a collection of goods. It is a widespread mobilization involving over 155,000 volunteers in around 12,000 supermarkets. The products requested, oil, legumes, canned meat, baby food, canned tomatoes, are not chosen at random: they are the ones that are most often missing from the tables of those who live in poverty. Each donated package will be distributed through the 21 regional offices of the Food Bank and the 7,600 partner organizations operating in the area.
The face of the crisis that is not paid attention to
You must not think that the Food Collection is a handout, though: behind every package of donated rice, there is a story, there is an elderly man with the minimum pension who can’t make it to the end of the month, there is a family who was doing well, but between increases and inflation, now finds themselves having to choose whether to pay a bill or eat bread. Food povertyIn fact, it’s not just a lack of food, it’s much more: it is loss of dignity, isolation, renunciation of health.
A package of pasta, a box of legumes, a gesture that can make the difference. Tomorrow we will donate in supermarkets
Food poverty: more than 40 percent in four years
According to data contained in the ActionAid report, “The numbers of food poverty in Italy starting from official statistics“, at a national level, in the last five years, the number of Italians receiving food aid has increased by 40 percent. A truly worrying number that cannot be answered by increasing food aid, which remains a necessary but insufficient response. The Collection itself does not solve the problem, but at least one day a year it makes it visible with the hope of shining a light on the collective responsibility of sharing.
A question that concerns everyone
Therefore, the true strength of Food Collection Day it is not in the numbers, but in the reversal of the logic of consumption: donating loses the meaning of charity and becomes co-responsibilityhighlighting how solidarity is not an emergency, but a culture to be cultivated against indifference. Tomorrow, therefore, whoever enters a supermarket will find an opportunity to do something more. For someone and also for yourself.