Vinicius Lázaro feels lucky. Fifteen months ago he left his country, Brazil, with the intention of starting a new life in Spain. He arrived in Madrid without hardly knowing anyone or mastering the language. His beginnings were not easy. A friend told her about the NGO CESAL. “I went to the La Quinta Cocina restaurant-school without really knowing what it was, and I started without having any prior knowledge of hospitality,” the 26-year-old explains in a telephone conversation in good Spanish. “There they helped me educationally, but also personally,” he adds.
Pablo Llano, general director of CESAL, explains that La Quinta Cocina is a solidarity space where the training and socio-labor insertion of vulnerable young people, especially immigrants and refugees, is promoted. “‘Learning by doing’ is the philosophy we follow and with which we annually train about 150 young people to learn a trade. But we also help them raise their self-esteem!” he remarks. And that is what Vinicius achieved. From one night to the next he found himself serving tables, serving customers, acting as a kitchen helper… “Little by little I got the hang of it and learned the trade,” details this young man who, after completing his training period, has became part of the CESAL team.
As a result of the good reception that the La Quinta Cocina project has had, “which responds very well to the concerns of young people and the needs of companies in the hospitality sector,” says Llano, the NGO has launched other projects like the one carried out in the Chamartín market, in Madrid. “We saw that in other trades, such as butcher, fishmonger or delicatessen, for example, there was also a demand for professionals, and the opportunity arose to convert the Chamartín market, which was semi-abandoned, into a market-school,” he explains. “We took on the challenge and contacted different companies, such as Ferrovial, which has collaborated with us on other occasions within its Social Action Plan, and we proposed to join the initiative. And here we are,” Llano emphasizes. In the first stage, that of market rehabilitation, Ferrovial’s contribution has been key. “When the market-school is completed, we estimate that more than 300 young people per year will be able to train in different trades,” adds the general director of CESAL.
Fabián Pérez, a volunteer at the Altius Foundation, lights up when he explains what his day-to-day life is like in the commissary of the entity where he has been collaborating from Monday to Friday as a volunteer for a year and a half. “I had never collaborated with a foundation, but I had always had the desire to help people, and I love what I do. It makes me happy to be able to help,” explains this Venezuelan who has lived in Madrid for seven years and then adds: “For me, the Altius Foundation has been like a lifeline. Here I feel accepted, at ease, and this is something very important,” he says.
Both Fabián and the more than 1,400 volunteers who have participated in the project in 2022 are closely linked to the entity, which supports families and vulnerable people from the most basic thing: so they can eat every day. “The atmosphere is very good, and people like Fabián make everything go smoothly. Without having at least fifteen or twenty daily volunteers, the foundation would not be able to function or help the nearly 4,800 beneficiaries who participated in the ‘1 Kilo of aid’ project in 2022,” remarks Óscar Herrera, director of Institutional Relations of the Altius Foundation.
With the “1 Kilo Aid Market” project, the entity provides vulnerable people with a self-service distribution space for food, cleaning and hygiene products, “but the project goes much further and we chart a path to for the person to train and get a job. We accompany her at all times, but she is the one who always makes her decisions,” Herrera details.
The director of Institutional Relations of the Altius Foundation is aware that, without the support of volunteers like Fabián and companies like Ferrovial, it would be impossible for the entity to develop all its programs. “Thanks to the collaboration and involvement of Ferrovial, we created a hospitality classroom, which allowed volunteers to cook right there for the most vulnerable people, who asked us for cooked food. We were also able to build fantastic facilities for the distribution of food, with cold storage rooms, and now we also have a commissary,” details Óscar Herrera.
Last year, Ferrovial also adapted accessibility and renovated the Tortosa Soup Kitchen in collaboration with Cáritas. The company’s involvement helped to adjust doors and windows, install access ramps and also made it possible to create a three-phase electrical line exclusively for the kitchen. The lighting in the dining room and the hot water plumbing were also improved, among other aspects.
Ferrovial’s rehabilitation and reform program for soup kitchens and food banks has been evident in these more than ten years of collaboration with shelters for homeless people, kitchens, soup kitchens and centers that ensure a better future for those most socially disadvantaged people. At the same time, it has served to promote initiatives to adapt food storage and distribution spaces such as that of the Spanish Federation of Food Banks (FESBAL). Miguel Fernández, who directed the Spanish Federation of Food Banks until 2022, thanks Ferrovial for allowing them to “improve infrastructure and, consequently, obtain more products for their 1.6 million beneficiaries, of which 300,000 are under 14 years”.