Cooking macaroni for 3,000 people every day: "We don't see the end"

CeutaThe fight against hunger is part of the daily life of many people in Ceuta. Although many of the immigrants who crossed the border illegally at the end of July have decided to return to Morocco and many others are already in temporary accommodation resources set up by the State, there are hundreds who are still trying to make a living as best they can in the city. They queue in front of supermarkets, restaurants, and bars in the hope that someone will give them something to fill their stomachs, they ask for money, fish, or even take food from the trash. At El Trampolín beach, a couple of boys have improvised a grocery store; they buy food and then resell it at the settlement. "Now we work for Mercadona," joke Ayoub and Imad, who show the purchase receipt to prove that they have not stolen anything. There are so many mouths to feed, however, that the help of neighbors and the solutions they come up with are not enough, and it is the social entities that are ensuring that these people can eat every day, weeks after their arrival in the city.

In the center of Ceuta there is a soup kitchen that in the last month has become an improvised camp. It is open all year round for some 400 people living at risk of social exclusion in the city, but in recent weeks demand has grown exponentially and, in the worst moments of the crisis, they have managed to distribute 5,000 meals. "We are doing everything possible, but wherever you look there are only problems," laments Mustafa Abdelkader, president of the NGO Luna Blanca, which coordinates the soup kitchen. The stoves in the organization's small kitchen do not stop and a dozen workers,many of them immigrants who also crossed the border at the end of July and now act as volunteers, prepare macaroni for the 3,000 people to whom they are currently still distributing food. At the doors of their offices, boxes full of basic products such as bread, milk, hygiene supplies and towels are piling up, which they will distribute in the coming days.

They were the first to respond to the collapse that was experienced the last weekend of July in the city, whose population doubled and half of which had nowhere to sleep or what to eat. The social educator and spokesperson for the NGO Luna Blanca, Halima Hamed, recalls that the first few days they experienced constant harassment from thousands of people who were asking them for food. They had to work non-stop 24 hours a day, resorting to products from the warehouse –such as rice, macaroni, and lentils– and going into debt with regular suppliers to keep the stoves running. And this without neglecting all the people in Ceuta whom they serve every day. "We prepare 3,000 meals daily. You imagine, in this kitchen so small, 3,000 breakfasts, 3,000 lunches, and 3,000 dinners," explains Hamed, who admits that they are reaching their limit and are asking for a solution.

Risk of bankruptcy

The soup kitchen has turned into the Sidi Embarek camp in Ceuta, right next to the mosque that bears the same name, where many of the minors and women who arrived in the city have slept this past month. While the NGO Luna Blanca is in charge of the food, neighborhood associations coordinate the accommodation. The people in charge are Karima and Abdellah Mustafa, mother and son, who are also asking the Spanish government to speed up the response to provide a solution for all these people who have already been sleeping for weeks in a camp that was born as a provisional solution. This week, in fact, about seventy girls have finally been relocated to another place, the State has enabled a warehouse just for them, and, when the news came out in the media, many of the people who are still on the street knocked on the door of the camp to see if they could take their place.

Both the neighbors and the NGOs, however, explain that they are at the limit of their capacity and do not feel capable of taking on the care of more people. "We don't see the end. Many people remain hidden or sleeping on the street. We are talking about thousands of people," explains Hamed, who assures that without the support of the local administration –the city's Department of Social Affairs has assumed all the NGO's expenses while the crisis lasts– they would have gone bankrupt long ago. Besides feeding the people who sleep in this camp, the NGO Luna Blanca distributes meals to other settlements in the city. They do it, for example, in front of the emergency reception facility of Loma Colmenar, next to the Ceuta Hospital, where there are hundreds of people sleeping with the hope of getting a bed. However, social organizations warn that they cannot continue at this frantic pace of the last month and are calling for the Spanish government to step up. "We are covering a significant percentage of the drama we have in the city," assures Abdelkader, president of the NGO. The macaroni that will be distributed for lunch is already prepared, and the volunteers are preparing individual food containers for the hundreds of people waiting for them. There are three large pots filled to the brim, and they will not start distributing the boxes until they are empty. As long as these people remain in the city, the social organizations will continue to offer everything they have to help them, but they warn that, like so many people in the city, they are reaching their limit.