The queues on Calle Quero, in the Madrid neighborhood of Aluche, seem to have no end since April 18. There a group of volunteers organized by the neighborhood association distribute bags of food for vulnerable families every day and every weekend. More than 700 between this Saturday and this Sunday and with the expectation that this number will grow in a district, Latina, which accounts for 7,094, 9.82% of the requests attended by Social Services, according to data from the Madrid City Council.
But those helps are not enough. "If more come, we will not be able to attend to them," says Ana Isabel del Rincón, spokesperson for this neighborhood aid network, which indicates that the improvised logistics center is set up in the 60-meter premises of the association and some 1,050 families have been registered looking for food . "Those are only the registered ones, then those that are not on the list are added," he adds.
This weekend the 700 bags of food were loaded with macaroni, fruit and vegetables - apples, green beans, pieces of watermelon - potatoes, milk, flour, bacon, oil ... and 400 even with a kilo of chicken . "We give what we can because this comes from donations from neighbors, merchants and even Mercamadrid," said Del Rincón, who points out that they have received "not a single support" from the administration. "We are doing the work that corresponds to them," he protests after recounting that the neighbors came with loads of four vans this Friday from Mercamadrid.
The rest of the aid comes from the residents themselves, either in kind or financially, from the neighborhood shops or from the purchases made by the association itself to maintain this solidarity network. "There are people who help with 10 or 15 euros, we have had a donation of up to 1,000 euros, there are stores that give you three boxes of tomatoes. Each one contributes what they can, but the neighbors' response is spectacular. We then bought from a wholesale supplier and it is distributed in our premises ".
A premises of 60 square meters, divided into two floors of 30 meters, which acts as a headquarters and which "has become too small", they protest. "We have asked the District Board to allow us to use other premises, but we have been denied everything," says Del Rincón, who states that people work "crowded" in this space during the bagging process due to the amount of boxes that have
But how much longer will this neighborhood aid network be able to resist? " I do not think we can go beyond the first week of June because more and more people are coming and we do not have funds", they affirm in an association that the cancellation of the neighborhood festivals between May 29 and June 7 has cut its main course of action. "We have to save something to pay for the water and electricity of the premises and each time we have less"
However, the progression of the number of families grows week by week: 263, 416, 520, 700 ... and thus up to 1,050 registered in its network. "Last week we made a purchase of 9,000 euros and we are running out of stocks with so many people." But even if stocks drop, the queues continue at the door of the premises from 4 or 6 in the morning until the delivery begins at mid-morning. "The people who come here are really hungry and there are some residents of the neighborhood who come covered so that we do not recognize them because they are ashamed," he concludes.
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