The Carritos Solidarios initiative closes after meeting its objectives in Ibiza

Carritos Solidarios was born as soon as the ravages of the covid pandemic were perceived, to “act as a mattress and cushion the blow at a time of collapse,” recalls its founder, Marco Martin. One year and four months later, after distributing one million kilos of food and basic necessities, this solidarity platform is coming to an end after having distributed this function through its usual channels in the Administration or entities such as Caritas or the Red Cross.

The Founder of Carritos Solidarios, Marco Martín. D.I.

“From the beginning, our goal was to disappear because we ran out of customers,” Martín reflects. In all this time, the beneficiaries of Carritos Solidarios have been a dozen social entities that had also had to expand their field of action.

Associations such as Apneef or Magna Pitiusa, dedicated to assisting people with disabilities, created their own basic aid delivery service for families who were struggling in those critical times. This was also the case for Asociación Madre Teresa, for mothers and babies in vulnerable situations, or Médicos del Mundo, Fundación Adra, Food for Ibiza, Ibiza Food Bank or Equip Voluntari. All these entities have been the beneficiaries of the work of Carritos Solidarios, which coordinated all the work of collecting, storing and distributing the products.

Urgent help

In addition, during the moments of greatest pressure and supply problems for Caritas and the Red Cross, a large part of the resources were also allocated to them. “There was a time when people who needed urgent help received an appointment after two months and that’s where we came in,” recalls Martín. “We are even talking about people who had a fixed salary, but who took care of the family of the son who lost his job and rental house,” he explains.

Although there is still need, there is less demand because many people have recovered work during the season

All those emergency food banks of the associations have been disappearing and have fully recovered their therapeutic or welfare work. “On the other hand, although there is still a need, there is less demand because many people have gone back to work during the season,” he says.

Thus, for a month now, the trolleys for donating products have been removed in most of the 70 supermarkets that joined the initiative, through which hundreds of volunteers went to guard them. “Between all the tasks, about a thousand people have collaborated at some point with the whole project,” says Martin.