TİKA Provided Infrastructure Support to Bolivia to Prevent Food Waste

Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) provided a vehicle and food items to Bolivia Food Bank to be used for distribution activities.

TİKA continues to create solutions to malnourishment and lack of access to food in Latin America as well, two problems turning into an ever-growing crisis for individuals. Within the Preventing and Managing Food Loss and Waste Project in cooperation with the non-profit organization named Bolivia Food Bank (Banco de Alimentos de Bolivia), food distribution activities that happen in the city of Cochabamba can take place in the capital city, La Paz, and the city of El Alto as well.

Bolivia Food Bank is a non-profit organization that gathers the surplus production of food and cleaning items from the factories, marketplaces and big companies in the country. These items will go to waste unless gathered. They transfer these items to their storehouses and distribute them to those in need.

The vehicle which was provided to enable the new food item storehouses to be opened in the capital city, La Paz, and the city of El Alto, Bolivia’s fastest growing and most crowded city, was delivered to the authorities with a ceremony that was attended by TİKA’s authorities and Türkiye’s Ambassador to La Paz, Ertan Yalçın.

In his speech during the delivery ceremony, Ambassador Yalçın emphasized the contribution and support of valuable projects like this to the relationship between the two countries. Also, mentioning the Zero Waste project in his speech, which is being carried out under the patronage of Emine Erdoğan, wife of resident Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and is turning into an international initiative, Yalçın stated that this project supported by TİKA is also an important step towards preventing waste.

Founder of the Food Bank, Nicole Guerrero, expressed the importance of the received support with her statement: “We believe that the development of a country is based on education, but we need nourished brains and bodies before everything. One of our biggest dreams turned into a reality today; therefore, in the name of the Food Bank and the Republic of Bolivia, I thank the Republic of Türkiye’s Embassy in Bolivia and TİKA.”

Representing Univalle University, which is among the co-founders of Banco de Alimentos, the National Director of the Graduate Faculty at Univalle University, Dr. Sandro Augusto Guerrero Morales made a speech in which he stated that TİKA’s support is a tangible example of international solidarity against hunger and inequality. In his speech, Morales stated: “TİKA has shown a tangible affection, sympathy, and solidarity. This renunciant gesture is hopeful not just for food security but for the future as well.” and emphasized the importance of this project.

In 2017, Bolivia Food Bank, which started as a student initiative, could only transfer 100 kilograms of food to 15 children fighting hunger in Cochabamba. Now, Bolivia Food Bank is distributing 60 tons of food every month to more than 28,500 people across the country.

With support from TİKA, Bolivia Food Bank will be able to reach 20,000 people in El Alto and 18,000 people in the capital city, La Paz, in three years.

Within the scope of the project, Bolivia Food Bank will store, classify, and transfer the food gathered from various supporting companies to the meal centers, foster homes, shelters, and social welfare centers, using the vehicle provided by TİKA that has the 100^th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye logo on.