Charity at Work

The Solidarity Banks
A Gesture That
Opens to the
Mystery
One hundred and fifty associations across Italy. Tens of thousands of beneficiaries who receive food parcels every week. But in this way of responding to a need (made even more acute by the financial crisis), there is a lot more than just an idea that works. There are relationships, friendships, and humanity. And five thousand people who, by practicing charity, learn the one true law of life, together with those they help

by Stefano Filippi

On the innumerable websites of the Solidarity Banks scattered across Italy, the common slogan calls out: “Sharing needs to share the sense of life.” It’s a simple statement, as simple as the work of the Banks. People are hungry, and we take them a food parcel. If possible, we get to meet them. No structure, no speeches, sometimes not even a thank-you–and this is not just an expression. In Trento every week, two people persist in knocking on a door that never opens. A voice inside shouts: “Leave the parcel and scram.” They leave it and go. They’ve been doing this for three years. Is it reasonable? Certainly not, if you want to hear someone say, “That’s kind of you, thanks,“ or if your aim is to provide welfare or even form a relationship. Why take food to someone who won’t even look you in the face? A mystery. And that’s the reason. The Bank is a gesture that is open to the Mystery. There’s no other reason.
In recent years, the Banks have become one of the simplest ways for many people to begin practicing charity (one of the essential gestures in CL’s educational path). “An education in charity is our only purpose. This is work that exists purely for charity,” says Andrea Franco, the President of the National Federation of Solidarity Banks. The method is simplicity itself: the workers go to people’s homes in pairs with the food parcels. “By going in pairs, we recall the reason for the gesture,” explains Franco. A system invented in Palestine two thousand years ago “I discovered the Solidarity Bank through a group of families in Abbiategrasso, the town we had moved to,” he says, “and I still keep up my personal gesture of delivering a parcel to a farmhouse in Fallavecchia di Morimondo. It reminds me that I’m the first of the needy, and before me there is the Other, in whom I encounter the Mystery. And we have to keep repeating this, because we tend to forget.”
The Banks were founded a decade ago to help people living on their own, the unemployed, the sick, single parents, and immigrants. The poverty statistics and surveys of families having trouble making ends meet were not as dramatic as they are today, but the starting point was an analysis of the sudden fall in purchasing power. There were people in need and others who realized this and thought of a way to help: fuller shopping bags, the support of friends, and the help of the Food Bank. Today, it has grown into a network of 150 associations across Italy, with some 5,000 volunteers and tens of thousands of beneficiaries. The main growth has taken place over the last three or four years.

Educating people
We still hear the echo of Fr. Giussani’s words after the Nassirya massacre: “If there was an education of the people, everyone would be better off.” (Traces December Vol. 4, No 11 2003). The Banks are charitable works in which this popular education is being revived, among those who perform them even more than among those who receive them. A pair of young newlyweds in Matera wanted to begin their life together by devoting themselves to a gesture of charity. They asked the federation for information. A few days later, instead of a copy of the statute arriving on the fax machine, Franchi and a friend of his turned up from Milan. “The Banks are not talk about poverty but an encounter, about real relationships. They testify to how charity will change your life.” Now Matera has its own association and numerous volunteers at work.
Endless new ideas spring up with growing needs and the deepening conscience of the Banks: collecting food in neighborhoods and parishes, involving neighbors, and forging relations with associations with more experience. A new development is “solidarity families,” which pledge themselves to keeping the Banks regularly supplied by recovering food, wasting less, and buying extra when they shop. The charity that changes people’s lives affects pocketbooks and habits, as well as the pool of money. The important point is not to supply so many pounds of pasta but to take the commitment seriously. Then there is “Foodgivers Week,“ an initiative devoted to schools in the third week of Lent, with volunteers going to talk to the children first about themselves and then about the Bank.

Illusions and poverty
This is the most striking aspect: talking about yourself means stating your motives. “In this experience, you learn to understand what charity means, and that the answer to the desire for happiness is a bodily presence that embraces me– Jesus.” There is no hesitation about saying this name; there is no dualism between this Jesus and reality, because the Mystery is truly at work. There are innumerable stories that demonstrate this. In a town on the Adriatic, for years two members took food parcels to a Muslim woman who was in and out of the hospital a lot because one of her children suffered from a serious illness. One day, she announced: “We’ve decided to have our three children baptized. If Jesus is the reason why you show us such deep love, He must be so wonderful that we want Him for them, too.”
In Como, it was the school board that recommended the Food Giving initiative to the schools, but there weren’t enough people to go around to all of the schools. So one of the volunteers, Marco, asked a neighbor, Gianluca, for a hand. The two visited classes, explaining and describing their experiences. When they were driving back, Marco suddenly realized Gianluca was weeping silently.
“Hey, what’s up?” “When the principal called you, I stayed behind with a teacher who attacked me. She said we were gullible, and that this isn’t the way to tackle poverty. She said that we need to reduce Third World debt, that the Church was rolling in money, our work was a waste of time, and what was needed was the class struggle.” “Is that why you’re sad?” “I’m not sad, I’m crying for happiness.” “Happiness?”
 “Yes, because when she asked me why I did it I said, ‘Because I’m a Christian.’ For the first time in my life, I said who I was.”
That “yes” to Food Giving, that gesture of charity, has changed Gianluca’s life and also that of Marco.
In Syracuse (Sicily), a mother was bringing food parcels to a family and ended up spending her afternoons taking care of their son. The school was threatening to flunk this boy. “Let him come over to my place; he can study with my children.” He went once, twice, three times, and then every afternoon until the end of the school year. And he was passed to the next grade.
In Bari, the Bank began to help a person with four children, no regular job, and a dramatic personal story. Now this person attends the School of Community and is a leading member of the local Bank.
Elsi is from South America. She lives in Como on her own and is expecting a baby. The Caritas (Care) association sent her to the Bank. “They began by bringing me a food parcel, but above all they listened to me and helped me out of the serious difficulty I was in. I had to decided whether to have an abortion or keep my daughter.” Today, Elsi has two children and regularly attends the School of Community. “I want to stay with you and understand things better.”
In Pesaro, a lady helped by Miriam is astonished by Fr. Giussani’s method and she says, “Charity takes a lot of different forms, but yours is different. In the evening, when I make chamomile tea for my grandchildren, I realize that yellow bag is the sign of the Mystery.” (The chamomile tea bag comes from the Bank food parcel.)
“The big advantage of being the President is that you get to meet so many people,” smiles Andrea Franchi. “It’s not all roses, but the method is clear: you’re face to face with another person. Some have difficulty speaking, some are abashed, others just offer you a cup of coffee. There are those who receive one food parcel and want two. They’re all people with a troubled history. If you think you can fulfill their needs, you soon have to think again. The Bank is not a way of providing welfare. It’s about getting involved with other people in relationships that arises out of human interest and compels us to get to the roots of need.”

Forget about food stamps
This is the judgment that we had in mind when we answered a survey organized by the European Union about ways of helping the poor. Brussels could decide to help the destitute by handing out victuals or by food stamps or by prepaid ration cards. The welfare method would prevail over sharing and grass roots involvement. “Assistance provided through the Agriculture Ministry,” says Fr. Mauro Inzoli, President of the Food Bank Foundation, “is not just a response to a need. It’s an event that has woven a web of friendships involving millions of people. And sharing multiplies the value of a simple cash transfer. This is why we want to keep up what we have achieved over the years.”