Food collection, concrete help beyond the economy
While Italy debates the budget law, Europe is wondering how to combat poverty by 2050. A horizon that is too far away, if we consider that today more than 93 million Europeans live in conditions of material and social deprivation, and that in Italy almost one person in ten cannot afford adequate food. In the context of limited public resources, the response to poverty cannot be reduced to a list of compensatory measures, but must be recognised as a strategic investment to ensure social cohesion. Anti-poverty policies are not a cost, but an economic lever: they support domestic demand, lower healthcare costs and strengthen territories' productivity. The experience of the Banco Alimentare has demonstrated this for 35 years. Through a network of 21 regional organisations and 7,600 affiliated charitable organisations. Every year, almost 1.8 million people find concrete help thanks to the recovery and redistribution of 95,000 tonnes of food - half of which is saved from being wasted -: enough to offer three meals to every Italian. But the economic value of this activity goes beyond the material dimension: every meal recovered reduces environmental and social costs and builds relationships of trust, an indispensable premise for paths of inclusion.
The work of Third Sector organisations shows that poverty cannot be tackled with top-down interventions. Co-planning and co-planning with those who know the territories means building resilient communities, capable of providing timely and effective responses where the state alone does not arrive. In this perspective, European policies should flank investments for common defence with an equally decisive commitment to social security, recognising in the Third Sector an economic actor of general interest, capable of generating cohesion and development. Italy can and must lead this phase, choosing to invest not only in competitiveness and security but also in organised solidarity as a concrete form of cohesion policy and economic development.
President Banco Alimentare Foundation
