Christmas, harvest time

Rosa Sampaio*
Journalist at the Communication Center – NUC, from Centro Sabiá

In family farming, harvesting is always the time to share what we have with our friends, neighbors, and those who need it most. Bringing food to people at this time is also sharing dignity and justice. In this movement, Centro Sabiá delivers this Wednesday, the 22nd, throughout the day, 3,200 baskets with food products from family farming with an agroecological basis, in 55 peripheral communities in seven municipalities in the Metropolitan Region (Recife, Olinda, Paulista, Camaragibe , Jaboatão dos Guararapes, Moreno and Cabo de Santo Agostinho).

There are 75 tons of food produced by more than 100 farming families in the hinterland, agreste and forest area, plus cleaning items, which will reach around 16,000 people before Christmas. Each basket contains 5 kg of rice, 5 kg of beans, 2 kg of cassava flour, 1 kg of sugar, 3 kg of cornmeal (couscous), 2 kg of cassava starch, 2 brown sugar (1 kg), 2 kg of sweet potato, 1 egg tray, 180 gr. of common soaps and 200 gr. of bar soap.

End-to-end solidarity, buying from those who produce and need it in the countryside and taking it to those who are hungry and unable to buy food in the Metropolitan Region of Recife.

Hunger and misery have returned to haunt our country, people desperate for food, asking for help in front of supermarkets has become routine in large cities, such as Recife. And rural producers are feeling this economic, but also human and social, crisis in their pockets.

The movement of fairs and food supply centers are increasingly “weak”, as farmers say, they have food to sell, but few are able to buy it. Even though, in agroecological fairs, producers and family producers are managing to “hold” the prices of products, leaving them also fragile, as they need income to consume other products and pay their bills.

Civil society movements and organizations, such as Centro Sabiá, have been carrying out these emergency actions since the beginning of the pandemic. This action has the support, once again, of Fundação Banco do Brasil and its companies.

Each basket costs R$ 150.00 for rural women and men who work in the agroecological family farming system. You can also help us bring food to those who need it in the cities and help small farmers/family members, here on our website you get to know our work and, if you can, help us to promote more harvests and sharing for everyone, here . From a climate point of view, the harvest is not at Christmas, but we believe that now is the time to share hope and life.