STEPS
Step 1 :
First contact with Mr Thiebaud, fundraiser, to understand Mater Fondazione and explain how the emergency activities work.
Step 2 :
Visit to the Geneva beach kitchens with Walter El Nagar, founder and executive director of Mater Fondazione. Act 5 : Preparation of meals in the Geneva Beach kitchens.
Step 3 :
Immersion in the heart of the fight, preparation of 250 trays with the chef Francesco Mauri, the Mater team and 5 volunteers -> Destination the Camp’in of Caravane sans frontières.
But also :
Thinking of their new project : the Refettorio Geneva.
1. MATER FONDAZIONE
The Mater Foundation is a non-profit organisation that aims to perform a concrete and immediate community function to increase social inclusion in the city and the canton.
Gastronomy: the art of cooking, understood as all the rules and customs relating to the preparation of food.
Intersectionalism: the will to pursue objectives aimed at the abolition of disadvantageous positions and social discrimination in categories such as occupation, class and gender.
Mutualism: economic theory advocating a socialist society, based on free markets and usufructuaries through the practical implementation of cooperation, free association and social profit.
2. EMERGENCY ACTIVITY
The term “commisary kitchen” includes all emergency activities of preparation and distribution of free meals in relation to the pandemic.
Thanks to more than 20 professional chefs and 15 cooks, all of whom were forced to work on short-time contracts (during this period of closure), Mater Fondazione has been operational for three separate periods since mid-2020.
Each chef had carte blanche for the menu. The aim was to keep the price per tray at an average of CHF 3.50. In collaboration with dieticians, the chefs made trays that respected a balanced diet and ensured sufficient nutrition.
3. NOT ONE BUT MANY MISSIONS
- To serve complete and balanced meals to people in precarious or excluded situations, in coordination with other Geneva humanitarian organisations.
- To receive, with dignity, and offer a moment of rest and well-being to people in need.
- To develop nutritional programmes to be shared with organisations involved in the fight against hunger.
- To avoid waste and use the surplus and excess of producers and retailers.
- Provide professional training, by a brigade of recognized chefs, for the younger generation of chefs and for people in need.
4. FOOD
The distribution in 2020 represents a total of more than 9 tons of food products, at an annual cost of about CHF 54,000. the ingredients used are almost exclusively seasonal, organic and local.
The ingredients used are almost exclusively seasonal, organic and local, and are sourced through various local partners. Farmers, food suppliers and various companies in Geneva.
5. A TEAM
The struggle of the Mater Foundation is not only fought in the kitchen.
It’s more than 2000 hours of work by people who have given their time to us: fundraisers, community managers, architects, lawyers, videographers, sound designers, graphic designers. As an example, our marketing team’s work represents 312 hours.
