Let's light up the tables: ten years alongside vulnerable families

A periodic shopping bag for families in difficulty. For ten years, the Quartieri Tranquilli association has collaborated with Enel to create “ Illuminiamo le tavola ”, a project that, with the support of the Municipality of Milan, has distributed one hundred tons of food. Since 2020, the coordination role has also been played by Fondazione Arché , the non-profit organization that supports vulnerable children and families in building social, housing and work autonomy.

Right at CasArché, the headquarters of Novate Milanese in via Cardinal Maria Martini on the border with Milan, on Tuesday 27 May, from 2:30 pm to 5 pm, the birthday will be celebrated with a conference moderated by the journalist Antonio Morra . Speakers will include the presidents of the two entities coordinating the project, Lina Sotis (Quartieri Tranquilli) and Father Giuseppe Bettoni (Fondazione Arché), and the councilor for Welfare and Health of the Municipality of Milan Lamberto Bertolé . The project managers Laura Guardini for Quartieri Tranquilli and Jacopo Palmieri for Fondazione Arché will take stock of these ten years, but also the protagonists: the donors ( the Banco Alimentare Lombardia “Danilo Fossati” association and the companies), the corporate volunteers of Enel and the Ermenegildo Zegna group and the voice of the San Siro neighborhood. The conclusions (on the theme “Sustainability: a choice that benefits everyone”) will be entrusted to Giulio Lo Iacono , general secretary of Asvis – Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development .

Mariuccia Magri , corporate fundraising at Fondazione Arché, defines it as " a small, beautiful network , between associations of the Third Sector, private and active citizenship". Thanks to the neighborhood committees, she explains, "we are able to guarantee almost personal attention to individual families: we are informed of their needs, the presence of children, any pathologies. A key role is played by corporate volunteering : companies take care to make available not only the people but also the means to guarantee the success of the project".

Up to February 2020, in the San Siro, Corvetto, Molise-Calvairate, Ponte Lambro, Gratosoglio neighborhoods , more than 40 tons of food collected thanks to a group of important donors (Illy Caffè, Latteria Virgilio, Consorzio Casalasco del pomodoro, Riso Gallo, Pasta Molino Pagani, Bolton Group, Maria Marinoni, SoGeMi, Aipol, Coldiretti Lombardia, Banco Alimentare) were distributed. Parishes and listening centers, but above all the Neighborhood Laboratories identified the recipient families (over 300 in total), also indicating their composition so that the offer was, as far as possible, "tailor-made". In 2020, due to the pandemic, it was necessary to reduce exchanges and simplify the project: thus, "Illuminiamo le tavola" continued to support families in difficulty by collaborating with Fondazione Arché, in Quarto Oggiaro. From this neighborhood, the project with Enel restarted in December 2022, addressing 36 families indicated by the non-profit organization both in the neighborhood and in other areas of Milan.

Since May 2023 – in agreement with the San Siro Neighborhood Committee – the project has been extended to the “Quadrilatero” of the public housing in San Siro. Here , volunteers deliver food products to homes, as well as to several families, and to about twenty elderly and lonely people who are unable to leave their homes . This is a form of local help that did not exist until then. In addition to Enel, the Ermenegildo Zegna group and the companies Wolters Kluwer and Salesforce are participating by making their employee volunteers available. Over 300 company volunteers have animated the initiative in ten years.

In the opening photograph, the volunteer employees of the Ermenegildo Zegna group. The images were provided by the project “Illuminiamo le tavola”