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Meals of Power | Civic Europe
Environment and sustainability, Social inclusion

Meals of Power

Prevention of food wastage and support for individuals with limited mobility because of their own or family member's disability.

Creators

Who is behind this?

Olga Ślepowrońska

"Mudita"

https://wspieramy-mamy.pl/

Poland

Idea

Idea pitch

We collect food with close expiry dates, that might not be used otherwise, from producers or retailers. Then, with the help of volunteers, we distribute the food to the recipients. These are people whose capacity to leave their homes is severely restricted because of their own or a family member's disability.
The handing over of the food parcels will be accompanied by inventing recipes and cooking together with the received products, as well as collecting stories and creating a podcast.

Where will your project idea take place?

Kraków, south Poland and Warsaw, central Poland

What is the specific societal challenge faced by this region?

Although loneliness and the problem with the mobility of caregivers are not specific to Warsaw and Krakow, in large cities it is easier to become anonymous and experience the disappearance of social ties. The total number of people with disabilities in Poland was estimated at 3 to 7 million. No statistics on how many people in Poland have a mobility problem to such an extent that leaving home becomes a challenge. If that included single people with immunodeficiency, this would be a significant part of society in the COVID age. In addition, over 2 million Poles look after elderly or disabled family members. The second topic we deal with is food waste. In Poland, about 9 million tons of it is wasted every year. In this respect, we are fifth in the EU.

Who are you doing it for?

We are going to reach with our support 200 people from Kraków and Warsaw. Our clients will be persons who have problem with mobility and leaving their place, because:
-Their relative requires 24/7 care and the housing conditions make it difficult to leave the apartment (stairs, no driveway)
-It is impossible to leave their relative, e.g. because of respirator, percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy, significantly lowered immunity, etc.
-They face their own disability themselves and the housing conditions do not allow them to leave the apartment
-Disability or illness prevent them from leaving the apartment (chemotherapy, decreased immunity etc.)

How do you plan to get there?

STAGE I:
Identification of Clients, Volunteers and Food Suppliers (about 1 month)
1. Reaching out Clients with information about the project
2. Identification of food needs (allergies, special needs, number of people in the family)
3. Acquiring volunteers
4. Introducing volunteers into the project: training courses on the needs of recipients, journalistic workshops on collecting stories and creating podcasts.
5. Establishing cooperation with suppliers

STAGE II:
Core project implementation (regularly, weekly)
Delivering packages (volunteers):
1. Food pick-up and delivery to the parcel preparation point
2. Preparing packages according to the needs of recipients
3. Delivering packages to recipients

Contact with the recipient (volunteers):
1. Cooking together / collecting stories
2. Processing of collected recipes into social media content / converting collected stories into a podcast

Monitoring the course of the process (coordinator)
1. Getting feedback from the recipients - consultations and supervisions
2. Working on volunteers' motivation
3. Contact with suppliers - examining their needs and reflection
4. Ongoing evaluation

Promotion of the project (volunteers and promotion or social media specialists)
1. Creating content about food prevention
2. Creating content about the situation of families of people with disabilities
3. Contact with media

What are the expected results?

FOR FAMILIES:
-Meeting the need to be seen and appreciated
-Expanding their social network of contacts and support
-Budget relief
-Improving the logistics of everyday life by regular food deliveries.
-Meeting the need for a sense of meaning in life by measures to prevent food waste and co-creating content that testifies to the situation of people in similar situation.
FOR VOLUNTEERS:
-Meeting the need to be part of of local community
-Broadening their competences by attending journalism workshops and creating podcasts and content on our channels.
-Meeting the need for a sense of meaning in life by participation in social project
-Budget relief thanks to the food packages received
FOR THE SOCIETY:
-54t of salvaged food
-The opportunity to hear the story of a marginalized group

How does your idea strengthen active citizenship at a local and community level?

It is extremely important for us that the recipients of the packages will be also co-authors of the project. They will be surrounded by both material and social support, but their role does not end with being a beneficiary. Thanks to their work, there will be more recipes and ways of saving food brought to the public.
Their stories collected in podcasts can educate, sensitize the society and inspire people to act for people with disabilities and their families. They will become the ambassadors of all people immobilized in their homes. Podcasts will also raise awareness of how heterogeneous group they are. We want to create a high quality product - that is why the professional journalists will watch over the process of creating the podcasts.

Why is this idea important to you?

The project was initiated by people from the Mudita Association, an organization acting for the benefit of relatives of people with disabilities. As part of our activities, we provide psychological, legal, information and respite support. We have been testing this project (without any funding) for almost two years and 25 families are currently participating in it.
We are not able to answer all the problems faced by the relatives of people with disabilities, but through our actions we want to create a support network for them, faciliate the possibility of being heard and noticed.
We’re doing it out of healthy selfishness. Each of us may have health problems that make it impossible to leave the house. As long as we have relatives, it may happen that they will require our 24/7 support.

€ 34844,-

Total budget

€ 34844,-

Funding requested from Civic Europe

Major expenses

Salaries: 32844€
incl.:
Logistics specialists: 1095€ PM
Specialists in volunteering: 1095€ PM
Journalist coordinating the history gathering: 1095€ PM
Promotion specialist: 1 095€ PM
Coordination of the team: 547€ PM
Formal and legal coordination: 547€ PM

Promotion: 1000€
incl.:
Designing posters and stickers: 450€
Printing - 450€
Consultation in the field of SEO: 100€

Material costs: 1140€
incl.:
Fuel charge: 260€
T-shirts and bags for volunteers: 880€

What do you need from the Civic Europe community?

We would like to know if the other members of the community would listen to our podcasts and what kind of content should be included in them. We would also ask for opinion about such ways of including marginalized groups and preventing food waste, and how these problems are solved in their countries

Team

spadlamam

Idea created on April 26, 2021

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