Associazione Banco di Solidarietà Alimentare Nonsolopane

Il Banco di Solidarietà Alimentare Nonsolopane onlus (Nonsolopane) is a Food Bank founded in 1999 as no profit and charity organisation collecting food and redistributing it to people and families in need. Mission of the association is charity as basic value of human being life experience: sharing needs to share humankind sense of life. More than 100 volunteers collect, store and re-distribute food at home to people in need, visiting each person or family and creating a relation based on solidarity and wish to share a new zest for life. Each family received at home fortnightly or once a month by one of our volunteers a package fit the number and age of the members of the family. The visit at home is a very important part of our activity, Nonsolopane means "not only bread" as our visit is not only bringing food, but also solidarity, friendship and human support. Nonsolopane helped in 2014 more than 2000 people, most of them are foreigners ( especially from Marocco and Albania) being in state of need due mainly to unsufficient income, lost of work, and in a minor quantity health problems or divorce. We help more than 3000 people a year: 58% of them are immigrants, 36% between 31 and 54 years old, 57% in Varese. Each month we give about 1000 food packages. The volunteers are 300, they are involved in: the storehouse activities, the periodic visit to the families we help, the fundraising and foodraising campaigns of the association, the taking care of a field where we grow fruit and vegetables, the activity of transformation of raw materials to marmelade, the office and administrative activities. Nonsolopane promotes sharing fairly and without any discrimination, helping people in need for various reasons (job loss, serious illness and chronic poverty), unable to provide for their own needs and for their families, to recover a human and social condition satisfactory. The food collection is at the headquarter of the association: we have a storehouse where the volunteers receive food, store and package it in packs for people in need. What's the origin of the food we benefit? Foods come from companies in the agribusiness sector, the department stores, the food collection in collaboration with schools, churches, shops and, above all, by the direct involvement of individuals and families donors. Daily, we check and divide the food by kind, due date, weight or size, finally encode and store it. Our help is proportionate to need, and it should motivate them to "make it by their own efforts".