Come and discover the Solidarity Neighbors Institute!
Faced with so many hungry people in March 2020, businesswomen Maria Eduarda Fernandes and Mayara Amaral decided to roll up their sleeves and started, making 20 lunch boxes a day, at their home, to distribute around where they lived, in Boa Viagem. Seeing their attitude, some neighbors decided to help. The action grew and the Neighbors Solidários project became an Institute and serves more than 20 communities in greater Recife and Olinda. It has already fed more than 200 thousand people through lunch boxes and distributed more than 80 thousand basic food baskets in 72 points in Recife, Olinda and Jaboatão dos Guararapes.
Today the Institute has 3 fronts: distribution of lunch boxes daily, distribution of basic food baskets with a calendar and through the Solidarity Market, with these fronts we feed up to 8 thousand people per month. From Monday to Friday we deliver between 150 and 200 meals every day, always in a different location. There will also be juice, mineral water, dessert and a personal hygiene kit for each person. All with the help of donations from individuals and partner companies.
Our headquarters also has a solidarity drinking fountain with drinking water, which was developed by Maria Eduarda Fernandes, for the use of PSR (people living on the streets), to take a shower, drink water, wash clothes, and use it as much as you like.
Mercado Solidário serves families living below the poverty line, with a monthly income of up to R$100.00 reais. Our social worker visits the homes, talks, carries out a socioeconomic survey and registers the family. On this occasion, families already receive a card that entitles them to attend the fair at the Solidarity Market, which is located within our headquarters and has 103 shopping items available, such as: beans and rice. pasta, flour, cornmeal, tomato sauce, soft drinks, oatmeal, milk, cold cuts, meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, canned goods, crackers, assorted biscuits and many other items.
Our Institute has a team of 4 employees, more than 30 permanent volunteers, an industrial kitchen, a stock of items for daily use, a Kombi to make daily deliveries of lunch boxes and also seek donations from partner companies. We have a structure that serves the surrounding communities very well, 12 social projects that we help with monthly and provide mentoring.
In April 2022, we started the first classes of professional courses for women from the surrounding communities. They are carried out with an increase in the family's monthly income and with the certification of a profession. We also work with composting waste and everything we produce becomes fertilizer for our garden.