Red de Alimentos, Chile’s food bank, and its partner companies, together with Autopista Central of Grupo VíasChile and Fundación Luksic, inaugurated the first Social Pantry in San Bernardo.
This community space is a center for the delivery of food and basic necessities focused on elderly people in vulnerable situations. This is a project with a high social and environmental impact, which is sustained thanks to the rescue of the products delivered by the nearly 200 member companies of Red de Alimentos.
In addition to nutritional support, the Social Pantry seeks to contribute to the community of elderly beneficiaries of the program in San Bernardo, guiding and accompanying them in the search for solutions to common problems such as safety, health issues, among others.
María Eugenia Torres, General Manager of Red de Alimentos, underscored the importance of this program for the Corporation, commenting that “our purpose is to avoid wasting products, rescuing them from companies and delivering them to those most in need. Thanks to the Social Pantry, we can continue to expand this assistance, reaching directly the tables of the most disadvantaged senior citizens who are not part of social organizations and do not have sufficient income to cover their minimum needs”.
Registered senior citizens can pick up products once a week from the Social Pantry, located at Calle Sánchez #116 in the San Bernardo district. Each registered beneficiary has a specific time and place to be attended to. There is a delivery room where there are gondolas specifying the quantity of products that can be picked up.
The requirements to be a beneficiary of this program are: to be an adult over 60 years of age, receive the basic old age pension and/or have an income lower than the minimum wage, and reside in the municipality where the pantry is located. The application process is carried out by answering a brief survey directly at the store.
This social project is part of Red de Alimentos’ Plan 2025, which includes the inauguration of 10 Social Pantries in various communities of the Metropolitan Region, in addition to 6 other projects that are under development, in order to benefit one million people in vulnerable situations throughout Chile.
About Red de Alimentos
Red de Alimentos is Chile’s food bank, which rescues products fit for human consumption, distributing them to those who need them most, thus avoiding waste.
Through an efficient and traceable process, we unite companies and social organizations to rescue food, diapers and toiletries and personal hygiene products fit for human consumption, to distribute them to those who need them most. In this way, we achieve a sustainable model with a triple impact: social, economic and environmental.
To date, Red de Alimentos has managed to rescue more than 54 million kilos of food and basic necessities, with the help of 197 partner companies. These products have been distributed to more than 436 social organizations and 1,627 centers between Arica and Magallanes, benefiting 312,462 thousand people in vulnerable conditions. In addition to this important social and economic impact, RED has had a positive impact on the environment, avoiding the emission of more than 115 thousand tons of CO2.
