Our emergency plan and solidarity in the face of the crisis

Fully aware of the exceptional nature of the current crisis, we have decided to take unprecedented measures and implement an emergency and solidarity plan in our areas of action, Citizen Art and Sustainable Food, aimed at our two territories of intervention, France and Spain. Both countries have been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions have a double objective: on the one hand, to support our current collaborators and, on the other, to put ourselves at the service of those who accompany the most vulnerable people.

How can we join, within our possibilities, the solidarity efforts that have been deployed in France and Spain? Like many other organizations, we have been forced, urgently, to rethink our work methodologies and rethink our capacity for action in accompanying other organizations. Due to the fact that it is a family foundation dedicated fundamentally to a work of social transformation in the fields of art and food, the current crisis touches us especially. A crisis that affects the projects we accompany and those responsible for it from an economic, but also human and social point of view, and that forces us to rethink tomorrow.

Supporting our employees now and in the future

Our actions have initially been aimed at the projects that already had the support of the Foundation, those that have been most affected by the crisis, and the objective is to help them overcome it. To this end, and after having studied each project separately, we act at different levels:

• Listen: Since the beginning of the crisis, we have contacted all the project managers, collaborators of the Foundation, and we have made ourselves available to all those who were in difficulty.
• Treasury: early unblocking of subsidy tranches (in an economic accompaniment of several years, the subsidy is delivered in annual tranches), awarding of additional one-off aid during this period.
• Activities: suspension until further notice of the obligations to monitor and carry out the activities supported for the projects in progress.

All requests are subject to an investigation process by our teams and, where appropriate, we have the intervention of an expert or an instructor through an expedited procedure.

We have also extended the deadline for our calls for 2020, both in France and Spain and for our two thematic lines, so that project managers can prioritise the management of their most urgent matters.

Emergency aid for agents caring for vulnerable groups

In coordination with the Fondation de France in the case of France and independently in Spain, we have also decided to establish emergency aid for entities that work in the care of vulnerable groups. The identification of these entities is the result of coordinated work by our experts, program managers, network leaders, and other actors.

Among the initiatives we have decided to accompany so far are actions of solidarity, structuring and accompaniment, research or innovation:

In the field of Sustainable Food

In both France and Spain, we support initiatives to produce quality meals, wherever possible based on fresh, local, agroecological and/or organic products, aimed at people in vulnerable situations, non-confined homeless people, inhabitants of occupied spaces or informal settlements, people hosted in social shelters or emergency reception centres, asylum seekers, isolated foreign minors, etc.:

• Cesal: support to deliver baskets of food and hygiene products to 300 families and menus prepared in a municipal kitchen to 250 families from different neighbourhoods of the city of Madrid.
• Children’s Villages: support to distribute vouchers for the purchase of food products and medical supplies to 50 families in vulnerable situations in different regions of Spain, as well as to provide them with psychological and educational support. More information here.
• Ayuda en Acción Foundation: support to cover the food needs of 100 vulnerable Spanish families, as well as providing them with computer tools that allow children to have access to distance education during confinement. More information here.
• The Pa Sencer SCCL: support to distribute baskets of fruit and vegetables to 200 vulnerable people in Barcelona, through a distribution centre that supplies organic school canteens with food from 45 producers throughout Catalonia.
• Menjadors Ecològics: support to put into operation the kitchens of the nurseries in Palma de Mallorca, closed during the health crisis, with the aim of distributing menus among the little ones. More information here
• Orduña City Council: support to provide menus to vulnerable people and adapt the services of the municipal kitchen of this city in Spanish Basque Paris.
• Nutrition without Borders (NSF): support for the recovery of surplus food and its distribution to vulnerable groups, with the aim of providing assistance to 10,000 people in Barcelona. One of the main difficulties lies in finding new sources of supply given the confinement situation. Learn more about NSF’s work here.
• Baluchon: support for the production of 1000 meals a day in Île-de-France. More information about their food solidarity actions here.
• Food sweet food: support for the production of 1150 meals a day in Île-de-France More information about their actions here.
• Bou’Sol: support for the distribution of 8000 meals a day in the metropolitan area of Marseille and to ensure the production and availability of organic bread. Learn more about Bou’sol’s activity during the crisis.
• UGESS: support to finance the operation and purchase of food for the most precarious population supplied by the 80 social and solidarity shops that make up this network, in the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Occitanie, Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Learn more about UGESS’s actions in the face of the COVID crisis.
• Jardins de cocagne: support to distribute solidarity baskets of fresh produce to people in precarious situations in rural areas of France, with the aim of promoting a balanced diet. More information about their activity here.
• Espigoladors Foundation: support to improve access to food for disadvantaged people, within the framework of its “Canned food that cares” campaign. This foundation serves the needs of 2200 disadvantaged people by making jams and creams for a support network with a presence in different neighborhoods of Barcelona. More information here.
• Ana Bella Foundation: support to promote access to sustainable food for women victims of gender violence in Spain, whose situation has been aggravated by confinement, with baskets of local products or with aid for the purchase of food products in local shops. More information about their actions in the face of the crisis here.

We also accompany the farmers who have been most affected by the crisis:

• Solidarité Paysans: support to strengthen the accompaniment of farmers in difficulty in France, in particular for legal issues, and assistance to public institutions in the management of these problems. More information about its activity during the crisis here.
• Terre 2 cultures: support to organise and facilitate the integration of refugees by offering them employment on farms in France.

Finally, we are documenting the situation of actors in the agriculture and food sector in France and Spain, with the aim of helping them to identify unmet needs and anticipate problems, and to collect field data that will serve as a basis for us to reflect on “the world to come”.

• Terralim and the local Mixed Food Technology Network: support for the conduct of its survey on agricultural and food resilience during the Covid-19 crisis in France, Spain and internationally. You can read the newsletter of the survey “Manger au temps du coronavirus” (“Eating in times of coronavirus”) on the RMT Alimentation Locale website.

In the field of Citizen Art

In response to the serious situation we are experiencing, we are supporting artists and cultural professionals whose situation has been weakened by the crisis.

• Cité internationale des arts: we have launched a partnership with the Cité that consists of an artist residency programme that provides them with a living and working space, financial support and a conducive artistic environment for a period of six months. More information about this unprecedented program here.
• Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs: to support the students most weakened by the crisis, EnsAD has set up an emergency social aid fund.
• Artagon: support for the granting of emergency scholarships, through the creation of a support fund for art school students in precarious or vulnerable situations as a result of the current crisis. More information here
• Atelier des artistes en exil: aid aimed at artists in exile in France, in precarious situations and particularly punished in this context of crisis. More information about the association’s campaign during confinement.
• MCD/Makery: support for the collection of initiatives, dissemination of information and coordination in relation to the creation and manufacture of emergency material, aimed at both makers and the general public. This online “handyman” means of communication disseminates information about creative communities and the landscape of labs, fablabs, and other related environments. More information here.

In addition, we provide specific support to projects whose beneficiaries are people in a situation of exclusion, victims of discrimination or in a situation of isolation:

• Valiente Bangla: support to offer emergency help to the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the Lavapiés neighbourhood of Madrid. This association promotes the defence of the rights of immigrants, cultural exchanges and coexistence. More information here.
• Popular Association of Street Vendors of Barcelona: support for the distribution of food aid, the purchase of material for the production of medical supplies and the creation of an aid fund for volunteers in an irregular situation. The activity of this association focuses on the integration of street vendors and the fight against racism.
• Asociación Nómadas: support for the provision of urgent aid in the form of food, accommodation and accompaniment for women, LGTBIQ people and migrants.
• Fundación Tomillo: support to reduce the digital divide of young people at risk of social exclusion in Madrid, providing them with computer equipment that allows them to access distance learning. More information here.
• Petits frères des pauvres: support for the acquisition of 4G tablets for people isolated in accommodation centres for dependent elderly, who are accompanied by volunteers during confinement.
• La trousse aux projets: support for providing digital equipment and training to families and teachers as part of a pedagogical project led by the schools where the children are schooled. This crowdfunding platform is dedicated to pedagogical projects at the educational levels from infant to secondary. More information here.
• FeelU: support to provide entities in the field of care for the elderly and disability in France with virtual reality kits that allow immersive trips (available to staff and residents). The idea is to use them to break isolation and generate well-being and possibilities of escape in a context of confinement that is especially difficult for these people. Learn more about FeelU’s work.

In the field of social innovation

• The Social Exchange: aid to support the call for impact investment aimed at Spanish SSE projects focused on the search for viable, innovative solutions adapted to the Covid crisis. More information about this unprecedented call and about the alliance of co-financiers involved in the project here.

We would like to express our deep appreciation to all the people who, through their projects and with great effort and enthusiasm, are managing to carry out truly inspiring solidarity actions in this complex context.

We would also like to thank the programme managers and the experts who work with them for researching the different networks, studying the proposed projects and approving the grants quickly to respond to the urgency.

“We are living in an unusual moment, a “crisis” that, as usual, will bring out the best in each of us. Solidarity and gratitude are the key words of this global movement: solidarity with the most fragile, recognition of those who mobilize to take care of us, feed us, inform us, or provide us with daily services, often invisible, and whose importance today takes on more prominence than ever. The Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation wanted to contribute its modest grain of sand in this enormous work, which would not be possible without the commitment of the people who are on the front line accompanying the most vulnerable. Also to them, our sincere gratitude.”

Marie-Stéphane Maradeix, General Delegate of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation