Doña Marcia carefully sorts food from donations from at least 72 companies and supermarket chains into different drawers. Place tomatoes, onions, corn, avocado on one side and fruit on the other. You need to make sure they are in excellent condition so that they can later be distributed to soup kitchens, churches, child and elderly care centers, and even patients with catastrophic illnesses. Doña Marcia works as a volunteer, along with 600 other people at the Quito Food Bank. The bank, now 20 years old, opened its doors this Friday, September 29, to demonstrate its processes, on the occasion of International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day.

The Food Bank of Quito, created by Alicia Guevara, a professor of industrial chemistry at the Polytechnic, aims to “save food” with the help of hundreds of volunteers who support the process, seeking to “build bridges between abundance and lack of food”. , Explain.

Thus, after two decades, the Bank has the capacity to supply between 90,000 and 130,000 people with food per day. He manages to save an average of 15 tons a day, in a city that currently wastes around 400 tons of food a day, despite having neighborhoods with 85% poverty. That 400 tons is equivalent to 1.1 million plates of food that could be provided to those who need it most, and also represents 4% of the total wasted. Additionally, Ecuador throws away 939,000 tons of food annually, making it one of the most wasteful countries in the region.

In any case, the Food Bank tries to save more and more food and ensure that it reaches as many people as possible. Alicia Guevara tells, among her anecdotes, how one day the milkmaid called her and told her that I have 25,000 liters of chocolate milk that expires in three days, she accepts them and in a few hours it has already been placed in several neighborhoods where the users are. But apart from that, the Bank uses various processes to extend the shelf life of certain foods. One of them is, for example, making fruit purees, jams or croquettes for pet food, among others.

600 volunteers, who come in shifts of 120 per day, are also vulnerable people, who give their support, at the end of the day they take a well-stocked basket of food that serves their whole family for a week.

Alicia Guevara recalls that she decided to found the Bank in 2003, while she was studying in Europe and learned about such initiatives that already exist in the world. At the age of 24, he decided to start a bank that started in a small office-sized warehouse. The first food recovery was 252 kg. Now 10 to 15 tons a day are extracted, he says.

Despite the great effort being made, says Guevara, it is still not enough, since there are 58 other organizations on the waiting list that also want to be beneficiaries of the Food Bank, but currently only 4% of wasted food is recovered. .

There are 11 food banks in Ecuador, two of which are certified. The one from Quito, with 20 years of experience and the one from Guayaquil, with 12 years. Other initiatives in other cities have not yet received certification, but are in the process, and have even undergone training at the bank itself in Quito.

This September 29, the Quito Food Bank received a donation from Electrolux, which in turn benefited seven foundations, which are beneficiaries of the Bank. Photo: Patricia Sandoval

This Friday, September 29, Electrolux, a company that manufactures household appliances, joined the support of the Food Bank and donated several appliances (three refrigerators, three blenders, two stoves and four fryers) which in turn reached several organizations that prepare and serve food for people who demand it. Christopher Carrera, commercial manager of Electrolux, delivered products to representatives of Inti school, Fe y Alegría, Asociación Umbral, Talina Kuma, Siervas de Yaguachi, Casa de la Misericordia and San Leonardo Murialdo.

Additionally, it was announced that the Bank, by winning the tender, was able to acquire a new truck for rescuing products in agriculture.

Tetrapak also supports reducing food waste

On the occasion of the International Food Loss and Waste Awareness Day, the Tetrapak company also stated that one of the ways to reduce waste is to create appropriate solutions for food packaging and processing and the inclusion of new technologies: