(By Vanessa Boch) All over the world, in every corner, on every TV, at the local corner shop, on the radio, even in your neighbour’s house across the road, people are talking about the economic crisis and how it is the worst the world has seen in the last fifty years. Each one of us in our own small micro-universe is experiencing first hand the crisis affecting our families, friends, ourselves…. We’ve watched once successful businesses closing their doors…. We have witnessed a lot.
Months ago I remember being shocked by a program that documented people in big cities living off food thrown away by large supermarkets. Gypsies, youngsters and pensioners were amongst the many people that formed queues by the rubbish bins outside shops, hoping to get a share in the waste products… it made quite a lasting impression. The reporters of the program got close to these people and spent time getting to know them, listening to them retell their stories of how they came to be living off discarded food.
The crew were shown how at the end of the day supermarkets would throw away perfectly good food that had just reached its sell by date. Women were shown fervently filling their trolleys with yoghurts, meat, eggs, milk, vegetables, whatever they could get their hands on under the lights of the streetlamps.
A few of these collectors were embarrassed by the cameras and did not want their faces to be filmed but the majority were happy to give their opinions and relate their stories, many of which would make your hair stand on end. The documentary was highly emotive and I remember feeling lucky that I did not live in a big city where such things were a part of life.
I certainly never imagined that it might happen in our little corner of the world.
But times have changed, and recently in both Motril and Salobrena I have come to notice the queues forming at night by the supermarket bins. Admittedly, in the past I had seen the odd hippy, looking through bins for food and last summer I did come across one couple with a small child out searching for scraps (at which point I immediately ran home to find them whatever food I could from my own cupboards.) But now it seems that it’s not just the odd hippy from the Alpujarras that waits by the bins with his trolley, but residents of the town.
I came across this scene for the first time last month and put it down to the troubled economic times that we’re all facing, unsure as to whether or not it has actually become a regular practise here.
As a journalist I felt I needed to bring this regretful situation to the attention of others, but somehow at the time, I knew that I couldn’t try to photograph these locals. I did not want to embarrass them, so instead I chose to write this article.
Meanwhile the Salobreña Council has had many people queuing up at their back door for handouts. And despite providing many families with provisions, the demand has become too great and they have been unable to help everyone. More recently, I also heard about people who have been asking for handouts from the Council and then driving up to collect it in their nice cars, past the eyes of those in far more desperate need but too proud to ask perhaps.
But I don’t want to delve too far into the politics – my job is merely to inform.
If, however, reading this article has touched a nerve, perhaps next time you will think a little bit more carefully about the food that you throw into the bin and how much money you spend on beer, for example. And before you say anything, I too will be taking note, I won’t point the finger without first looking at myself.
In the meantime, let’s all hope that the crisis will come to an end as soon as possible.