A Food Bank on the Frontlines of Conflict Keeps Delivering

Increasing Food Access & Empowering Communities

The Diakonia food bank partners with 180 non-profit groups who distribute about 150 tons of food monthly to some 50,000 people, 95 percent of whom live in Guayaquil.

The Rockefeller Foundation helps support them as part of a $2,831,300, 15-month grant to the The Global FoodBanking Network, targeting 13 food banks in 10 countries to help meet the challenge of a food crisis worsened by climate shocks, global conflict, supply chain disruptions, inflation, and food waste.

In its first six months, the grant supported the food banks in reaching an additional 3,889,496 food-insecure people, rescuing and distributing 33,408,005 kilograms of food, and avoiding an estimated 143,675 metric tons of greenhouse gases by recovering food destined for landfill.

“Alliances from different sectors help food banks everywhere recover more food from the entire value chain and then get it to the people who need it most. That not only increases food access in communities, but it also helps avoid food waste and the greenhouse gas emissions waste generates,” said Maria Teresa Garcia Plata, Latin America regional director for The Global FoodBanking Network, which reached 32 million hungry people globally in 2023.

The Global FoodBanking Network is committed not only to improving food access but empowering local communities, some of which work under great stress.

The work for The Rockefeller Foundation has been led by Catherine Bertini, who served 10 years as the Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme.

“Throughout my career, I’ve seen firsthand how engaging and empowering women is critical to ending hunger,” Bertini said. “With support from The Global FoodBanking Network, women leaders like Mónica are feeding people facing hunger in the short-term, while building longer-term community resilience.”

Climate Change Supercharges Food Insecurity

From its lively riverside boardwalk to its skyscrapers, Guayaquil, with a population of about 3 million, is Ecuador’s largest city and commercial hub. In recent years, the Guayas River port has become an exit point for drugs and weapons coming from Colombia and Peru.

But the port also serves the food bank.

Recovering fruits and vegetables from farm fields to supply the food bank in Guayaquil. (Photo Courtesy of The Global FoodBanking Network)

The food bank began rescue operations at the port in 2016, distributing food unable to reach its intended final destination, often because of documentation issues. The Rockefeller Foundation grant is aimed at helping build capacity here, in part through establishing alliances, raising awareness, and expanding donor databases.

As this effort shows, hunger is not just a lack-of-food challenge; it is also a logistics challenge.

Some 900,000 tons of food are wasted or lost yearly throughout Ecuador. About 25 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. The country ranks second in the region for chronic child malnutrition; some 27.2 percent of children are impacted. Food insecurity is heightened by the presence of some 870,000 migrants living in Ecuador, most from Venezuela.

Climate change also impacts food security. In the medium- to long-term, Ecuadorians can expect to see the intensification of extreme climatic events such as El Nino; further retreat of glaciers; more floods and prolonged droughts, and increased transmission of dengue and other tropical diseases.

Despite Dangers, the Work Goes On

After Jan. 9, tensions existed even between neighbors. Echeverría recalled a conversation with a close childhood friend. They’d played together under a mango tree, shared food, been in one another’s homes. Now he’d joined a gang and was manning the checkpoint leading into her neighborhood.

“Luck is not the same for everyone,” he told her.

“We had the same life,” she disagreed. “You just took different decisions.”

“I am thinking how much you are going to have to pay” for protection money, her friend mused.

“I am not paying anything,” Echeverría retorted. “You think what I have is for free, but I work two jobs so I can have what I’ve achieved so far.”

Jan. 10, 2024.

Gangs still shared the streets with soldiers, and Echeverría acknowledge fear when she set off for the food bank.

Key to her motivation for the work is that she personally knows what it’s like to have an empty stomach. “It is important to understand the need,” she said. “I come from a humble home. There were times when I had to skip meals.”

A hand-over of food from the Guayaquil Food Bank. (Photo Courtesy of Banco de Alimentos Diakonía)

Though the food bank director had insisted no one was required to work that day, every single team member showed up.

Echeverría and the director personally delivered food to the three most insecure neighborhoods so no one else would have to.

Each delivery was successful. And the work goes on. From Jan. 9 through the end of the month, Diakonia Food Bank recovered about 149,000 pounds (67,567 kilograms) of food and delivered 19,700 prepared meals and 245,890 food rations.

“To see the face of a child, an adult, an old man with a smile and a full stomach – this became the engine to follow,” Echeverría said. “On Jan. 10, we fed 300 children who otherwise would not have eaten.”

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Women are disproportionate victims of the climate crisis, which is all the more reason their involvement in climate action is so important. Former UNICEF head Carol Bellamy and The Rockefeller Foundation’s Catherine Bertini discuss the vital role women need to play as the world addresses climate change.