2' min read
2' min read
"Today we talk a lot about cultural welfare, but when the Antoniano started out, 70 years ago, holding together two worlds, that of solidarity with a soup kitchen, and that of culture with cinema-theatre and then music between the Zecchino d'oro and the Piccolo coro, it was a unique case. And still today this mix makes us special, I don't know of any other solidarity reality that makes TV with children (treated like children, with clothes, songs and contexts suitable for them), above the kitchen and the hall where the needy "are served like in a restaurant", this was the motto of the founder, Father Ernesto Caroli". These words were spoken by Fra Giampaolo Cavalli, director of the Antoniano, celebrated this year with a commemorative postage stamp issued by the Italian Postal Service and Mimit, in 250,000 copies, to mark the Franciscan commitment that began on 13 June 1954 (the feast of St Anthony), which has enabled the Bolognese canteen to serve more than 30 million meals to people in difficulty, without ever closing a day since.
The Franciscan network Operazione Pane has grown around the world (today there are 25 soup kitchens in Italy, Syria, Ukraine and Romania), just as the activities of the Zecchino d'Oro (founded in 1959) and the Piccolo coro founded in 1963 by Mariele Ventre have expanded, duplicated this year on the outskirts of Naples, with the newly formed Piccolo coro di Caivano, which has 40 children singing in the difficult Campania municipality that has become a national model of economic and social revival. "The meal responds to a primary need, the music serves to restore the desire and joy of living and acts as a communicative driver for the charitable activities," explains Brother Giampaolo. The reputation is linked to the 67 editions (this year) of the Zecchino d'Oro, even though the most challenging work is distributing meals, 365 days a year, with demand exploding in recent years.
The canteen in Bologna, which will be renovated between 2020 and 2021 and made into a multifunctional space open to events by companies and private individuals, was designed on the users that the Antoniano had three years ago, about a hundred people a day, 'instead,' the friar points out, 'we increased to three times that number last year, today we serve about 250 meals a day, numbers that tell of a growing discomfort even in a rich city like Bologna'. Work is now underway (4 million euro supported in part by the Pnrr) to modernise the cinema-theatre in via Guinizzelli. "Donations have increased a great deal since Covid, we have reached 5.5 million euro from fundraising, which has become the main form of support for our activities," explains Iole Ciliberto, head of Fundraising, a function set up from scratch in 2011 in which 14 people work full time today, out of a hundred Antoniano employees and professionals, supported by over 700 volunteers.
