In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people were affected by the shortage of financial resources, and as a result, many have lacked food. Taking this need into account, the regional government of Ñuble (Chile) developed and financed a project executed by Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA-Chile) in order to feed the most vulnerable for 12 weeks.

The company Optimize, which specializes in the industrial food supply, has collaborated in this action. In this partnership, seven communities in the Ñuble region will benefit from solidarity dining rooms.

“We are very happy to be part of this great alliance with the Ñuble city hall to be able to serve the solidarity dining rooms here in the region,” highlights Rodrigo Cárcamo, director of ADRA Chile. “The collaboration greatly increases our resources and obviously fulfills what we as ADRA have as a principle: to dignify people through justice, compassion, and love. We thank the company Optimize, who will be in charge of distributing and generating food in each of the solidarity dining rooms.” 

Supporting the work of 41 dining rooms and meeting their established goal, ADRA and Optimize have carried out this great project, handling a large quantity of food at an industrial level and going beyond their obligations, so that the whole process was carried out in the best possible way.

Martín Arrau, regional mayor of Ñuble, commented on the alliance with ADRA: “A team with a tremendous spirit of solidarity like what we have here has organized itself. The regional government decided to make a large-scale project and found a great partner along the way. They are very organized, and they also go beyond what is required in a contract, putting a lot of vested interest to ensure this project is carried out with a lot of love."

Recipe book

A key difference of the work ADRA is doing in this situation was the focus on adding nutritional value to each serving of lunch. As part of this goal, they put together a recipe book focused on a balanced diet which was delivered to each dining room. The purpose is not only to feed people but also to enrich each portion of food.

“The recipe book is meant to act as a food and meal guide,” points out Natalia Rebolledo, nutritionist. “Most of the places where I went spoke about legumes, but they did not give a greater variety of options and they did not pay attention to the nutritional contribution of each preparation. So our hope is that this guide will expand on those areas particularly.” 

It should be noted that a total of 250,000 food rations and 125,000 snacks for children will be distributed in the dining rooms of the Ñuble region.

If you want to be a volunteer or learn more about ADRA projects, go to this link.

This article was originally published on the South American Division’s Portuguese news site