The global Covid-19 pandemic is having a great impact in Spain, so much so that the numbers of people infected and dying are pushing the Spanish health system to the limit, especially in the main focus such as Madrid. We are in an extreme situation and this is also causing people to show their most supportive side and show their gratitude to all those who are working hard to face this crisis.
All these expressions of appreciation include applause to thank the work of the health workers that break the silence that prevails on the streets every day as a result of the lockdown. On the other hand, many companies and individuals have given up their equipment or set to work to make material to protect medical professionals and many companies of all kinds have decided to put their entertainment or training services free of charge to help make the confinement more bearable. In short, there are many who want to collaborate and do their bit in this common fight against the coronavirus.
Among all these initiatives, #yotecocino (#icookforyou) was born on social media, it is an initiative that seeks to bring together people willing to cook for health workers who are exhausted due to the enormous work they do every day. The proposal was launched on Twitter by Juanjo Amorin, director of the institute of digital experts Edix, after sharing the idea in a WhatsApp group chat that has with some workers of the center. “I observed the cacophony of medical staff and I said to myself: ‘I have to do the same, connect people with time who know how to cook to exhausted health workers that need a bit of pampering'” explained Amorín for Business Insider Spain.
After spreading the word in the WhatsApp group, Amorin, who lives very close to La Paz Hospital, volunteered on Twitter to cook for the health staff “I live next door to La Paz Hospital. If you’re a health worker and you’re working or tired and you want me to make you lunch or dinner these days, let me know by DM. To you or your little ones. I love cooking. Where one eats, many eat. Thanks neighbours for taking care of us #Madrid”. Well, what started as a group of WhatsApp, has ended up being a viral initiative supported and spread by thousands of people.
It encourages people to collaborate by proximity, to safeguard the state of alarm. The operation is simple, through social media, cooks and health care providers who are close can contact to manage the delivery of food. “We can’t take the meals to the doctors at work because we have to stay at home, so the idea is that the health worker who lives in your neighbourhood, in your housing estate, in your street… passes by on his way and the food is collected at the landing to avoid contact between people,” says Amorín.
In addition, it plans to expand through the creation of a collaborative website: #yotecocino (#icookforyou) aimed at channeling and managing contacts.
On the other hand, there are also small neighbourhood bars that work for free for their neighbors, restaurants that donate their pantries to Food Banks, and Michelin-starred soup kitchens that cook for hospitals. In Madrid, the most affected Spanish city, by the Covid-19, the NGO Gastronomía Solidaria already has 200 volunteer cooks at the disposal of the City Council to provide food to health workers that have been displaced to the hospital opened at the Ifema fairgrounds and to those who need it.
Another initiative is being carried out by Food4Heroes, with which restaurants such as Honest Greens, Grosso Napoletano, Tierra Burritos or Manolitos Bakery take food to health workers.
In Barcelona, the HealthWarriors movement already has fifty establishments where lunch and dinner are prepared and delivered free of charge to hospital staff. They are responding to the call of Francesc Terns who, with his two home catering businesses closed and the fridges full, started out alone, “with his little hands and his car”.
José Campoviejo, with a Michelin star in El Corral del Indianu (Asturias), turned 51 this Monday and celebrated by cooking altruistically for 70 children without resources in his village, Arriondas. “It was the happiest birthday of my life,” he confesses to Efe.
In Zaragoza, the local hotel industry has activated “Gastroaplausos” to prepare dinner for the staff of the Miguel Servet Hospital and the Clinic, and for the time being, they already have restaurants like La Mafia, Ginger Fizz Bar, La tradicional, La Mostaza, Bronson, Peppone and Pizza Mia, although the aim is to keep growing.
Sources: Business Insider, La Vanguardia,
