ALEXANDRIA – TheSolidarity emporium is a new service which, since February, has been offered by Caritas of Alessandria, in via delle Orfanelle 25.
Thanks to Italian Caritas and Fondazione Social, people in difficulty, mostly families, can stock up on basic necessities, food and otherwise. For purchases, coins or banknotes are not used but a points system (up to a maximum of 150 per month) which varies based on the ISEE and the number of members of the family unit.
Experience that works
«During 2023 – he comments Giampaolo Mortara, director of Caritas Alessandria – there were 127 people in conditions of economic hardship that we welcomed at the Emporium. In the vast majority of cases these are families, many of which are quite large.”
Since March the minimarket in via delle Orfanelle 25 has extended its opening days to include Friday afternoons from 2.30pm to 4pm (from Monday to Thursday, however, from 3pm to 5.30pm).
Beyond 71 thousand articles distributed so far, for a total of 59 thousand points already used by those who choose products for daily sustenance every week from the supermarket shelves.
Emporium, meeting opportunity
«It is not just a service capable of satisfying material needs, because the Emporium can also be a tool for meeting and relating. For us it is a new experience – adds Mortara – which the last year has allowed us to do territorial community animation, one of the primary objectives of our commitment to supporting the most vulnerable. It’s a new but replicable methodwhich aims to involve the community on multiple fronts.”
Some of the products, including “fresh”, come from supermarkets Coop and Bennet and from Alessandria Milk Plant, “but there are also many donations from individual people.” A “network” solidarity, in short, which in just over a year has generated a series of micro initiatives to support the emporium proposed by various local organizations involved in social work and volunteering. «Among these, for example, the project “Suspended backpack” with which periodically the friends of Lions Club Marengo they collect school stationery supplies”, adds the director of Caritas Alessandria.
Parishes and listening centre
Each family can access the emporium for a maximum period of six months, after which the service is allocated to a new group of families indicated by the parish centers of the city and from Listening center. «A conversation with the operators of our Listening Center is always necessary, so as to have a complete picture of the family situation and any further critical issues».
The manager of the Emporium, Silvia Coscia, adds: “The availability of products is varied – observes Silvia Coscia – because we try to satisfy a wide range of needs. We also take advantage of the suggestions of those who use the service.”
