Traders at Barcelona wholesale market Mercabarna have increased their donations of fruit and vegetables by 105 per cent this year compared with 2008 following a successful awareness campaign at the site.
The market, in conjunction with charitable foundation the Banco de los Alimentos, said the results of the campaign had been “highly satisfactory and had exceeded all expectations”.
The initiative – which was dubbed ‘Help them with your fresh produce surplus’ – took place in the market during the first two weeks of May, during which some 20,500 kilos of fruit and vegetables were gathered for the needy and disadvantaged.
In a statement, Mercabarna managing director Montserrat Gil de Bernabé said: “Although the initial objective of the campaign was that companies at Mercabarna increase their fresh produce surplus donations to the Banco de Los Alimentos by 50 per cent, the traders have responded very positively to the call and have increased their fruit and vegetable donations by 105 per cent.”
Mercabarna said the number of companies, which number 172 in total, at the site that has chosen to collaborate with the charitable foundation has increased by 83 per cent compared with the year before.
