Brazil: project will give chefs food for homeless people

Offer free meals for social vulnerable groups: that is the purpose of the community project Reffetorio Gastromotiva, led by chefs Massimo Bottura (Italy) and David Hertz (Brazil). During Rio 2016, they expect to give 5,000 meals. The organizers estimate that 19,000 meals will be given until the end of the year.

The restaurant will open on August 9, in Rio center, and will use surplus ingredients from other cuisines. According to Hertz, the project is based on the following pillars: nutrition and dignity, food waste reduction, youth empowerment, education, and health.

The initiative also involves a gastronomy school for training young people and delivering lectures. It will receive daily guest chefs from around the world and young talents who will create menus with ingredients donated to the restaurant. "We will not pay the chefs, they want to be there. They want to be part of it," said chef Bottura.

During the Olympics and Paralympics, the food will cooked with surplus ingredients, previously prepared by Behind catering, which serves the Athletes' village, the Media Center, and the workers of the Games. At the end of the event, Refettorio Gastromotiva will continue to serve meals with donations from other partners.

"We will use surplus ingredients, we will not work with leftovers. We will also not use products with close expiration date. We are trying to establish long-term partnerships, [like] with the grocery store Benassi and other caterings," said chef Hertz, one of the founders of Gastromotiva project, encouraging Social Gastronomy in Brazil and the world.

About 70 people are involved in the project, which uses the Refettorio Ambrosiano as a model. The Refettorio Ambrosiano was created by Massimo Bottura in Milan (Italy) and over 65 international chefs cooked with ingredients coming from the Milan Expo 2015. Bottura and Hertz consider that the lunchroom in Rio will be one of the Olympic legacies to the city and they expect this project to surpass the ten-year period of the contract with the city hall.

According to Hertz, a large amount of food is not used daily in Rio Supply Center. "We need corporate support from human resources to carry out this project. Companies can be part of it, the government can be part of it, but we have to change the way we think [to avoid waste]," he said.

Chef Bottura—founder of Food For Soul, an NGO that encourages the fight against food waste and the debate on social inclusion—said the cities of Los Angeles and New York, in USA, and Montreal, in Canada, are getting prepared to run similar lunchroom projects in 2017. According to him, in a giant country like Brazil, there are great opportunities for attracting support for initiatives like the new community kitchen.

Translated by Amarílis Anchieta