Alliances That Transcend, we speak with Alicia Guevara, Founder of the Quito Food Bank
In Ecuador alone, more than 900,000 tons of food are wasted annually, equivalent to USD 334 million. This is why Food Banks are created, with the aim of preventing this waste and ensuring that this food, in perfect condition, reaches those who need it most. As República del Cacao, we have maintained a prosperous alliance with the Banco de Alimentos Quito (BAQ) since 2019, through which we have not only donated our products to support this wonderful work, but we have also held workshops for knowledge exchange and connections, through which more companies have joined to work with the BAQ, and their beneficiaries have been supported with more than just food.
Our latest initiative was an IG LIVE developed between our Executive Chef, Andrea López, and Chef Romina Rueda from the GQB Culinary School. Through this, the children from the BAQ's allied foundations connected and learned recipes for desserts and cookies that they can enjoy using the chocolate we have donated. Learn more about what this digital event was like and our work with BAQ in recent years in the following interview with Alicia Guevara, its founder.
Tell us about yourself. What inspires you in life, and why do you work at Banco de Alimentos Quito?
I am Alicia Guevara, founder of the Quito Food Bank. We have been doing this work for 18 years. My primary profession is as a professor at the National Polytechnic School, in the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Agro-industry, and I do this project with the BAQ as a volunteer. It’s a small project that has grown tremendously. We started by serving 200 people, and now we serve over 50,000 people per month. What inspires me is the desire to help. I believe we all have not only the need but also the obligation to do what we can to help those less fortunate.
What programs does the BAQ currently have, and with what allies does it work?
In general, food banks work to prevent food waste from various sources: companies, distribution centers, and retailers. This food is collected and sorted with the help of volunteers. Once the food is ready, it is distributed to organizations. We then generate reports and data on the donations we have received. We work with around 60 companies that make donations, sometimes weekly, sometimes monthly, sometimes annually. These various companies donate products to us; among them, one of the most important is República del Cacao. There are also retailers and food industry entrepreneurs who help us in this endeavor.
What goals would you like to achieve with your current alliance with República del Cacao?
Chocolate is a product that our beneficiaries, who have very limited resources, do not have access to. However, we know that chocolate is a product that brings joy wherever it goes. Anyone you offer chocolate to will have a smile on their lips, and even children, when you give them chocolate, it brings them great happiness. Therefore, being able to give them access to a food they can't normally get is a great joy for us. And now, with what República del Cacao is doing, they are not only delivering a product and walking away, but they are also sharing knowledge, showing the organizations that they are not just important for receiving products, but that they also want to get closer to them by imparting knowledge. That is fabulous for us. We are enormously grateful for this connection you have with people; it gives them the importance they truly deserve, and we are very thankful for that.
What did you think of the initiatives developed so far with República del Cacao?
Something I really like about República del Cacao is that it's an organization full of life. They don't stick to just one idea; instead, they're always looking to innovate and find different ways to help. Last year, they held talks, chocolate handling courses, and now this, an IG LIVE for all organizations to participate. It's very good for us because it's not just the same old thing. You are always reinventing yourselves, looking for ways to help, so thank you again.
What are the future projects for the BAQ, and what specific projects emerged during the pandemic?
As a food bank, we didn’t stop for a single day during the pandemic. In fact, if there was one positive aspect to the pandemic, we could say that it raised our profile, as people came to understand that food is a resource and that circumstances like these—which were completely unforeseen—can arise, suddenly cutting off access to food. So during the pandemic, our main goal was to expand our reach to more areas where we could help, try to salvage more food, and serve many more people. We’re opening up new avenues for food recovery that go beyond just the final stage of food distribution; for example, we’re currently launching the “ReAgro” project, which focuses on food recovery in the agricultural sector, because 30% of the produce never even leaves the farm—due to aesthetic reasons, overproduction, and so on. So now we’re going into that sector to recover food from that area, and since BAQ was founded within the National Polytechnic School, we’re currently providing technical assistance; we launched the project in March, and we’re not just going to ask farmers for food—we’re also helping them with technical assistance in soil analysis and fertilization recommendations, and we’re expanding our efforts to serve more and more people.”.
What is your opinion regarding this dynamic, in which the children from your beneficiary foundations have now been included?
Beautiful! Because just by telling them that you donated more chocolate than usual, therefore, we were able to reach more people. So, when we told them we were going to give them more chocolate for the children to learn, they already wanted to get to their organizations to start distribution, and they were very happy with the LIVE because they wanted to learn. So, it was a brilliant idea you had.
With the intention of sharing your voice with society, what message would you give to our audiences of chefs and organizations in the food sector, and chocolate-consuming customers?
First, the fact that we can all give something to others. People who consume chocolate, who know how to work with chocolate, can teach, can show what they know, can inform others that there is a lot of food that is wasted and that we can make use of it. If we all join hands, if we stop food from being wasted in our own homes, we can reach more people. We should remember that the food we are blessed to have every day, there are people who don't have it. What is sometimes waste for us is what others have to consume for the day. So I always tell them that wherever they are, we have an obligation to do what we can to commit to helping and changing the day-to-day lives of people who don't have what we have.