Pane Quotidiano - interview

Interfaced
1

Pane Quotidiano is a non-partisan, non-profit organization founded in Milan in 1898. It provides free daily food, and often clothing, to anyone in need, without discrimination or requirements. It operates two main distribution sites, in Viale Toscana and Viale Monza, serving between 3,500 and 4,500 people every day. Its users include vulnerable individuals, families, elderly people, low-income workers, and an increasing number of Italians facing economic hardship.

Supported by food producers, European aid through GEA, private donors, and volunteers, Pane Quotidiano distributes basic goods such as bread, pasta, milk, and canned food. Much of the food comes from surplus, combining the fight against waste with an approach centered on dignity. In a city like Milan, marked by high living costs and deep inequalities, Pane Quotidiano plays a crucial role as a safety net where public services alone cannot meet all needs. Over more than 125 years, it has become a cornerstone of Milan’s volunteer ecosystem and one of the most visible grassroots responses to poverty.

Claudio Falavigna, who has been volunteer with the organization for many years, today coordinates the volunteer engagement.

The focus of this project is to understand how organizations like the one you are part of experienced the Covid period, and how they not only survived but in some cases expanded their service. Would you like to tell me how you lived through that time and what it was like for you? Then I’ll ask some more specific questions.

2

Gladly. I started volunteering with Pane Quotidiano in 2016, a few years before Covid. When the pandemic hit, we closed to guests on March 8, International Women’s Day. We stopped distribution to the public, but we did not stop receiving food.

We couldn’t distribute directly because we were not equipped for home delivery, and with more than 4,000 guests a day it would have been impossible. So we redirected all the food we received from producers to the Red Cross and Civil Protection, which were structured to deliver aid to people in need. We received a great amount of food and passed it entirely to those two organizations.

Around June 10–15 we reopened, with a series of strict precautions. We no longer did person-to-person distribution. At the entrance gates we set up tables with pre-packed bags. Guests would pass by, take a bag, and leave. No contact, to protect both volunteers and guests.

As for supplies, Covid was obviously a tragedy, but it also had one effect for us: we gained new suppliers and much greater visibility. Social media attention increased, and many people helped make our work, and the work of other organizations dealing with food insecurity, more visible. This strengthened our supporter base.

After a few months, we partially resumed the usual system, with a fenced path inside the structure. Guests enter, the food planned for the day is laid out on tables, and the volunteer places it in the guest’s bag. That is our current operating model.

It’s important to underline the support we received from producers and donors, but also from ordinary people who would come by car to bring food or clothing. Economic hardship affects not only access to food but also clothing, and for several years now we have distributed clothes almost every day.

The pandemic also brought us closer to our guests. They appreciated the fact that we kept going, the commitment and the risks taken. Pane Quotidiano never stopped functioning. There were staff members and authorized volunteers handling food intake and redistribution to the Red Cross and Civil Protection. This strengthened the bond with the people we serve.

3

Were these bonds new, or were they already there but weaker?

4

They were already there, but they became much stronger. The guests care about us. We are not psychologists or specialists, just volunteers, but in addition to food we try to offer a few seconds of calm: a smile, a pat on the shoulder, a joke, sometimes listening to someone’s pain. Without rhetoric, sometimes even wiping away a tear.

Our spaces are not frequented by Bocconi students, even if we are right next door, but by people living with fragility, suffering, and both direct and indirect pain. The pandemic tightened these bonds and increased trust and confidence, which is essential.

5

And what about relationships with other associations or institutions in the area? Did a stronger network emerge?

6

No, because Pane Quotidiano operates exclusively through direct donations. We have no ties to the Region, none to the Municipality, none to the Church. The Municipality granted us the land in Viale Toscana for 99 years, for which we are grateful, but we receive no subsidies.

The only significant institutional support comes from the European Economic Community through GEA, which supports food aid organizations. About 30–35 percent of the food we distribute comes from them: pasta, oil, coffee, canned goods, sweets, brioches, sugar, rusks, many products. Today it represents roughly 35 percent of our distribution; the rest comes almost entirely from producers.

With our numbers, around 4,500 guests per day, in 2025 that means about 1,450,000 food bags in a year. Think about how much pasta, how many cans, how much milk that requires. We need producers who can support us with large quantities. We organize three food collection drives, which are important for visibility and gathering supplies, but on their own they are not enough to sustain our service. Just to give one example: on a day when milk is distributed, we hand out around 4,300 liters.

7

In your internal organization, did anything change, or even the way you experience this work after Covid?

8

I could say that Covid had a positive effect in that sense. It pushed us to improve our internal organization, to manage supplies better, and to strengthen relationships with our donors. Pane Quotidiano stands on a few fundamental pillars, one of which is our donors: producers of pasta, oil, milk and other basic goods who donate food. During the pandemic we were in even closer contact with them, and this also helped us reorganize internally in a more efficient way.

We are a self-sustaining organization. We have few employees and we try to keep costs as low as possible. We rely on significant donations from ordinary people, through PayPal, bank transfers, and direct donations at our two distribution sites, as well as on the support of major donors.

9

And on a personal level, as a volunteer, did anything change for you?

10

Before answering, there is one important thing I forgot to mention. Covid pushed us to think about something that has now become structural: home delivery of food packages for people with 100% disability. Every week, with four vans and eight volunteers, a driver and a second person in each vehicle, we deliver food packages directly to people’s homes. Today we reach about 300 people with civil disabilities every week.

We continued this service even after Christmas; we didn’t close for fifteen days, because it was clear that people with severe disabilities have enormous difficulty accessing food. This is truly important support.

11

You were saying that this started during Covid.

12

Yes, the idea was born during Covid and then developed further. It was also made possible thanks to companies that provided economic support, because we had to increase the number of vans, which is a significant cost. Together, we were able to launch what I think is a very meaningful initiative.

13

And coming back to you personally: how did you experience that period as a volunteer?

14

It was certainly a painful time. Like almost all Italians, I was locked at home. In 2019 I was already close to seventy, and my daughter was terrified that I might get infected. It was about a month and a half of real suffering. At the same time, I am by nature optimistic and positive, so I didn’t let discouragement or panic take over.

When I came back, I returned with even more enthusiasm, more motivation, and greater attention, especially toward our guests and toward my fellow volunteers. This is a very beautiful outcome. A strongly constructive harmony was created, which allows us not only to work well together but also to spend time together beyond our shifts.

We sometimes have dinner together; two or three times a year we organize a dinner for all volunteers. Over time we have built relationships that are less formal but more structured, rooted in our shared activity.

We also do something quite unique for team building. Groups of three, four, five, sometimes even seven or eight employees from companies come and spend half a day with us serving guests: they distribute food, pack bread, get involved. They do an excellent job and, for that time, they become volunteers with us.

We have also started, though still in a very early and occasional way, to go into schools. This is something I personally care a lot about. If I can give a contribution, it is to explain to younger people who still have a long road ahead of them, unlike me, what solidarity is, how it can be practiced, how it can be lived.

In the half hour we are sometimes given to present Pane Quotidiano in schools or companies, I always focus on this aspect: solidarity, which can take many forms. From there, we often connect these meetings to food collection initiatives in schools and workplaces. Some companies, for example, have spontaneously organized food collections at nearby supermarkets.

In February I will be at Liceo Einstein to present Pane Quotidiano. Before Christmas I went to two schools, one of them with first, second and third-grade children. It was a wonderful experience. Afterwards we organized a food collection. It has a double value: cultural and ethical on one side, material on the other. We combine both, because unfortunately we also need bread, milk and oil, and we should not be ashamed to ask for them.

15

Perfect, it’s very beautiful, also the work in schools. I wanted to ask you about that. One last question, also in view of our research: I’m interested in the Milan context. What does it mean to carry out this kind of activity in Milan, and do you think the city has changed after Covid, in terms of general atmosphere?

16

I have always had a great deal of respect and affection for my city. I was born in the province of Mantua, but I moved to Milan when I was a year and a half old. Today I am 73, so I have lived here for more than 71 years. I also feel like a citizen of the world. Work took me around and broadened my horizons, and I lost the kind of provincialism that comes from living only within one street or one building.

I have great esteem for Milan because, in my view, it is above all the capital of volunteering. Not that Rome, Bologna or Florence do not have organizations, but from my experience, in Milan you do not die of hunger. You can always find a hot meal. That does not solve all problems, of course: people still live with fragility, suffering, and difficulty. But food can always be found. There are many organizations, secular and religious, connected or not to the Municipality or the Region, that intervene to respond to these needs.

From my point of view, Milan seems increasingly attentive to these situations. I do not want to enter areas that do not concern me. I am speaking purely from what I feel and perceive. I perceive a strong and growing attention, which did not disappear after Covid. Covid was, unfortunately, a kind of springboard, but it helped keep attention high, and organizations have benefited from this.

For example, a few years ago, not decades ago, the Municipality granted us the land for 99 years. Thanks to that, we were able to renovate our headquarters and create adequate spaces. This is just one example, but I am sure there are others for many organizations.

Honestly, I am not at all negative about Milan.

17

That’s great. There are always many narratives about Milan, both positive and negative, so it was important for me to hear your point of view.

18

I start from a simple premise. With age and experience I have learned to go beyond slogans, quick jokes, and newspaper or television headlines, and to look more deeply. A banal example: today people discuss skyscrapers in Milan, but compared to major world capitals Milan has a ridiculous number of skyscrapers.

There are certainly other issues, such as procedures and respect for rules, but I find many public debates superficial, while at the same time many things continue to move forward.

I live in the Porta Romana area. Thanks also to the Olympics, this area and others have been renovated very well. But for me Milan has always been attentive, under different administrations. It is not a matter of political alignment. There has always been movement and positive dynamism. So yes, I am pro Milan.

19

It’s important to hear this perspective. As you said yourself, it is a point of view, and others may see things differently. But I also see the changes you describe.

20

I live in an area, I do not know if you know it, Corso Lodi, which ends at Piazza Corvetto, Gabriele Rosa. Unfortunately, unpleasant things sometimes happen there. But today there is not a single building on Corso Lodi that has not been renovated. Every condominium has been refurbished. The internal avenue, which used to be an ugly parking area, now has small green strips, a bike lane, benches.

You can criticize, and there is always room to do better, of course. But there are also citizens who get involved. For example, flower beds managed directly by groups of residents.

My daughter and I are part of a local chat group. Once a month we clean the garden where Lendia Bacchiglione lives, a place where I practically live as well. I say this to underline that there are many valid initiatives. In the end, the city is made by people.

Even though it is a large city, it is still made by people.