Mining company Vale donates one million food baskets in Brazil in cooperation with NGOs

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Vale has joined forces with the Panela Cheia Movement (comprising Cufa, Gerando Falcões and Frente Nacional Antirracista) – with the support of União SP and the cooperation of UNESCO in Brazil -, and with the Movimento União Rio and Ação da Cidadania to donate around 1 million food baskets to feed 219,000 Brazilian families.

The initiative, which seeks to address growing hunger during the pandemic in Brazil, is also supported by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Approximately 70% of families will be granted food baskets or food stamps on a monthly basis for a period of 6 months.

Food basket distribution will be shared: the WFP, with Deloitte’s management support, will offer technical and logistical support to partner NGOs, which in turn will distribute the food to cities in the states of Espírito Santo, Maranhão, Minas Gerais, Pará and Mato Grosso do Sul, through food baskets or food stamps, provided by Alelo.

The NGOs executing this initiative in the states are the Instituto Brasileiro de Inovações Pró-Sociedade Saudável Centro-Oeste (Mato Grosso do Sul); Agente Pastoral Negros do Brasil (Espírito Santo); Associação Arebeldia Cultural (Minas Gerais); Instituto Beneficente Amigos que Brilham (Pará); Centro de Estudos Avançados de Promoção Social e Ambiental/Projeto Saúde e Alegria (Pará); and Instituto Nordeste Cidadania (Maranhão).

The Movimento Panela Cheia will be in charge of distributing food to other states in Brazil and, as part of it, Cufa (Central Única das Favelas) will rely on Deloitte’s administrative support. União Rio’s activities will be focused on Rio de Janeiro.

Ação da Cidadania will work in partnership with Vale Rede Voluntária, the company’s volunteering platform, open to the whole society. The aim is to mobilize people interested in donating from all across the country to join the cause. The action jointly with Ação da Cidadania will be conducted through matching: for every R$1 donated through the Rede Voluntária website, Vale will donate R$10. The goal is to reach R$200,000 in donations from volunteers to ensure R$2 million in donations from Vale, to be converted into food baskets to be delivered by Ação da Cidadania.

“It has never been as needed as it is now, during the Covid-19 pandemic, to help people struggling to feed themselves on a daily basis. By connecting to our purpose of improving people’s lives and changing their future, we are joining forces in the fight against hunger and we hope that other companies will also join us in supporting this cause,” Vale’s CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo said in a statement.