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Through the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Iberdrola is acting on its commitment to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis by launching an initiative to cook 90,000 meals for charity — 1000 meals for 90 consecutive days — to feed the needy in Madrid and Biscay.

The coronavirus crisis has raised unemployment in the first quarter of the year to the highest figures since 2013, leaving 1.1 million families in need^[1]. This situation has tripled the demand for food in some soup kitchens and parishes which were already supporting families at risk of social exclusion and poverty.

These meals involve an overall cost of €600,000 and will be shared out by the Iberdrola Spain Foundation after being cooked by Iberdrola’s usual catering service – hired by the provider Sodexo –, who will be working inside the company’s kitchens at the Larraskitu complex in Biscay and on the training and innovation campus in San Agustín de Guadalix, near Madrid.

The coronavirus crisis had closed these kitchens, but this charity initiative has also meant employment for 16 professionals from the catering service company who had been temporarily laid off. Sodexo will rely on its team of nutritionists to ensure the meals are varied and healthy, exactly as it does for Iberdrola.

The Company plans to deliver 300 meals a day to Cáritas Biscay and 700 to the San Ramón Nonato Parish in the Madrid area of Puente de Vallecas, which takes care of coordinating five soup kitchens. Once the initiative is underway, the number of meals for each area will be adjusted as needed.

Committed to mitigating the effects of the pandemic

The Iberdrola Spain Foundation is currently working on over 40 social projects with an allocated budget of €1.2 million, their core objective being to help the most vulnerable people. These projects have not stopped during the health crisis, now ensuring that social distancing and hygiene measures are strictly followed.

In this way, the Foundation contributes to Iberdrola Group’s social commitment, which, through various subsidiaries all around the world, is setting aside millions of euros to buy sanitary equipment and share it out among different organisations. This equipment, which is purchased in coordination with the government authorities and under their supervision, includes ventilators, medical suits and face masks. Plus, Iberdrola is implementing over 150 measures to contain the spread of the pandemic and ensure there is no shortage of electricity at any time.

^{[1]  According to data from the EPA (Active Population Survey), revealed in late April.}