A volunteer discovers the life of the Ferrolanos
Every day I passed the beautiful little orange building on the right side of the Rua Rubalcava I took a quick look inside, saw the workers with their white clothing dedicating passionately their time to charitable service and I thought: One day you will learn more about this interesting and unique place.
Time went by and every time I went past the Cocina Economica I had a bad consciousness that I haven’t yet investigated more. Now my volunteer service is almost over and I don’t want to leave this city without reporting about this special institution.
Thursday morning, the sun was shining brightly when I entered the front door of the building at 10.30h. The workers already started two hours before to get ready for the day. A woman was ordering bags of different food donations from different partners like supermarkets or private people. Of course everything was checked very well. Two of the five cooks were already starting to cook in the kitchen and a soft smell of a vegetable sauce floated through the hall. Another woman started to clean the tables to prepare and organizing the cutlery.
Since 1891 the social kitchen of Ferrol is a well known independent institution supporting people with limited resources with providing a full warm lunch every day and dinner from Monday to Friday and on Sundays.
After a while it will be the time of a few of the approximately 40 volunteers in total to arrive, that are dedicating one or two hours of their time per week helping for example with distributing the food and decking the tables. To do this important social work the volunteers just have to fill out a form, have an interview with the administrative workers to be registered.
At 12.30-14.30h lunch is taking place, due to donations and support of the local government it is free for the people. Of course people need to provide a certificate of indigence, to use the service of the institution. At the entrance this is checked by one of the two administrative workers of the kitchen, which are in charge of organizing the volunteer administration and managing the contact with the partners.
In the afternoon the cleaning starts, just before the procedure begins again and dinner is going to take place provided by a catering service.
At 22.30 after cleaning the day in the social kitchen of Ferrol is over, but after 10 hours everything will start again.
My impression of this institution was as interesting as I thought it would be. It’s very inspiring to see what dedicating work these people are doing there every day in the background of the daily city life. I really believe this stable social work and solidarity is one of the most important things that keeps our society together.
Further information: https://www.cocinaeconomicaferrol.com/
