María Teresa García Plata, Director General, Mexican Food Banking Network (BAMX)

BAMX seeks to reduce food waste across the entire value chain.

Considering the economic impact of the pandemic and unemployment leading to increased demand for food banks, how have you changed the structure of BAMX?

BAMX is a network of 55 food banks operating for almost 30 years, and since March 2020, we have seen an increase in the number of people coming to food banks. In 2020, we assisted 1.4 million people, and today that figure is more than 2.1 million. We have developed a special model to rescue food from along the value chain, prepare different food packages, and deliver it to people in need. Because we are a national network, we have the big challenge of not only finding more companies to donate food to as a priority, but also make monetary donations so that BAMX can afford to buy basic food items such as grains, beans, rice, lentils, and the like. We seek more funding to buy staple food items, such as grain.

What strategies do you use to rescue food from the value chain?

We rescue food from the fields. We have an alliance with more than 600 farmers and producers. We also work with retail chains, hotels and restaurants, and industry, including both SMEs and large companies at the national and international level. BAMX always starts by signing an agreement, so we have a formal relationship in place where a partner commits to giving us donations on a regular basis. Every single day, the 1,200plus people working in BAMX and our 24,000-plus volunteers working in our network, go out to the fields, businesses, and stores to collect food that is not sellable. This food is fine to consume but sometimes unsuitable for sale, such as faulty packaging or fresh produce that is not of uniform ripeness or color. There is a significant level of food waste for such reasons that make no sense. Since the pandemic we have started working with companies in the energy sector, such as IEnova, Engie, and Shell. We have been innovating to create these new relationships where we work with companies on special projects to benefit particular communities. We work with almost 7,000 communities so BAMX is an extremely experienced NGO for these companies to work with.

What are your main goals at BAMX for 2021?

We need to maintain the volume of food being rescued. We also need to grow our number of alliances, and that will be one of our main strategies for 2021. BAMX needs to be better known. We need to raise our profile so that not just the private sector, but also people in the community know about us and trust us as an NGO that has been working for this cause for three decades now. The need is growing, and we need their support and community volunteers. Mexico has a serious problem not only with hunger and food insecurity, but also in terms of food loss and waste. There is not much information available about this issue. We should be talking about this and doing things to be part of the solution because there is enough food in Mexico to feed everyone. We are trying to get more people involved and are working on the solution. The food bank was originally started by a businessman in Guadalajara who had trucks of tomatoes he could not sell; at the same time, he saw a retirement home struggling to find food. He started food banks in Mexico in 1987, and the association BAMX was established in 1995. We are now 25 years old and have 55 food banks. BAMX has 35 employees at its national office, 1,200 staff elsewhere in Mexico, and 24,000 volunteers in the country.