Food Solidarity Networks

In a city where industrial decline, immigration waves and economic crises have tested communities repeatedly, Setubal has built one of the most layered food solidarity ecosystems in Portugal. From the Banco Alimentar warehouse on the outskirts to a parish restaurant where a meal costs ten cents, the networks that feed the vulnerable are also networks that defend their dignity.

Banco Alimentar de Setubal

The Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome de Setubal (Food Bank Against Hunger) was founded in 1993 as part of the national Banco Alimentar network, itself modelled on the European food bank movement that began in France in 1984. It is one of 21 food banks operating across Portugal.

The Setubal food bank operates from a warehouse facility and serves as the logistical backbone of the district’s food solidarity infrastructure. Its operations are built on a simple but demanding principle: collect surplus food that would otherwise be wasted and redistribute it to people in need through a network of certified institutions.

Scale of operations

The 191 partner institutions include parishes, social solidarity institutions (IPSS – Instituicoes Particulares de Solidariedade Social), NGOs, and community associations spread across the entire Setubal district. Each institution is audited to ensure food reaches its intended recipients.

Food arrives from multiple channels: supermarket surplus, the EU’s Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD), donations from food industry manufacturers, and the twice-yearly national food collection campaigns in supermarkets that have become a civic ritual in Portugal.

“Ten thousand in the queue”

During Portugal’s sovereign debt crisis and the austerity years that followed, the Setubal food bank became a barometer of social distress. By 2014, the bank was already distributing food to over 30,000 people – but an additional 10,000 were on the waiting list, unable to be served due to limited capacity. The headline “Dez mil esperam por ajuda” (Ten thousand wait for help) captured the gap between need and available resources.

The crisis reshaped the profile of food bank users. Where once the typical recipient was an elderly pensioner or a long-term unemployed person, the waiting lists now included recently redundant factory workers, single mothers, and families where both adults held part-time jobs that could not cover basic expenses. The cooperative tradition of mutual aid in Setubal’s working-class neighbourhoods provided some buffer, but the scale of need overwhelmed informal networks.

COVID-19: a system under pressure

The pandemic that began in March 2020 tested Setubal’s food solidarity networks to their limits. Requests to the food bank doubled virtually overnight. Lockdowns, business closures and the sudden halt of the informal economy – on which many immigrant communities depend – created a wave of new food insecurity.

The demographic profile of those seeking help shifted again. Food bank coordinators reported receiving calls from dentists, small business owners, restaurant operators and other professionals who had never imagined they would need assistance. The stigma barrier, which had historically kept many from asking for help, crumbled under the weight of economic reality.

Rede de Emergencia Alimentar

In response, the Rede de Emergencia Alimentar (Emergency Food Network) was activated in the Setubal district in March 2020, coordinating the efforts of the food bank, municipal services, parishes and volunteer groups. In its first year of operation, the network helped 79,000 people – more than double the food bank’s pre-pandemic reach.

The emergency network introduced several innovations: direct home deliveries for quarantined families, digital coordination of volunteer schedules, and simplified registration procedures that allowed newly vulnerable families to receive food within 48 hours rather than the usual weeks-long intake process.

Restaurante Social: dignity at ten cents

One of the most distinctive elements of Setubal’s food solidarity landscape is the Restaurante Social (Social Restaurant), founded in 2011 by Padre Constantino Alves at the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceicao.

The restaurant operates on a sliding scale: meals cost between 0.10 and 1.00 euro, calibrated to the diner’s financial situation. Since its founding, the Restaurante Social has served over 270,000 meals.

What makes the initiative exceptional is not only its scale but its philosophy. Padre Constantino deliberately chose the name “social restaurant” rather than “soup kitchen” or “charity canteen.” The space is designed to look and feel like a normal restaurant – with tablecloths, proper cutlery and waitstaff. As the founder has said: “Eu vou a um restaurante social, nao a um restaurante de pobres” – “I go to a social restaurant, not a restaurant for the poor.”

This insistence on dignity extends to operational details. Diners are not required to prove their poverty. There are no public queues. The menu rotates daily and includes a starter, main course, dessert and drink. The staff includes both paid workers and volunteers, many of them current or former beneficiaries of the programme.

NGOs and civil society organisations

CASA – Centro de Apoio Social de Azeitao

CASA is one of the most intensive food solidarity operations in the Setubal district. It distributes 60 to 70 food kits per day, 365 days a year – a relentless rhythm that has earned the organisation a city medal for community service.

CASA operates entirely on donations and volunteer labour. Its model is hyper-local: families in the Azeitao area register directly, and kits are customised based on household size and dietary needs (including provisions for diabetics, the elderly and infants).

Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa – Setubal

The Portuguese Red Cross branch in Setubal provides food assistance to approximately 30 families per day through its social support centre. Beyond food parcels, Cruz Vermelha integrates nutritional assistance with other social services – clothing donations, emergency shelter referrals and basic healthcare.

COSAP and other networks

COSAP (Conselho de Organizacoes de Solidariedade do Distrito de Setubal) serves as a coordinating body for solidarity organisations in the district, helping to avoid duplication of efforts and identify gaps in coverage. The district counts 42 social canteens in total – a number that reflects both the extent of food insecurity and the depth of the civic response.

Electronic Social Card: a pilot in dignity

In 2024, Setubal became one of the pilot sites for the Cartao Social Eletronico (Electronic Social Card), a programme that replaces traditional food baskets with pre-loaded debit cards that beneficiaries can use at participating supermarkets.

The shift from food baskets to electronic cards addresses a long-standing criticism of food aid: that pre-packed baskets often contain items that families do not need, cannot use (due to allergies, cultural preferences or religious dietary laws), or already have at home. With a card, a family can choose what to buy – an act that restores a measure of autonomy and normalcy.

The programme is particularly significant for immigrant families in the Setubal district, who may have specific dietary needs tied to their cultural backgrounds. A card that allows the purchase of halal meat, specific spices or familiar staples represents a form of inclusion that a standardised food basket cannot provide.

School feeding programmes

Setubal’s school feeding programme ensures that no child goes hungry during the school day. Meals are free for families classified as Escalao A (the lowest income bracket) and available at 50% discount for Escalao B families. The municipality’s three-year school meals contract is valued at 7.5 million euros, reflecting the scale of the programme.

For many children from vulnerable families, the school canteen provides their most nutritious meal of the day. During school holidays, the municipality and NGOs coordinate supplementary programmes to ensure continuity of meals for the most at-risk children – a recognition that food insecurity does not observe the academic calendar.

Hortas Urbanas: growing solidarity

The Hortas Urbanas de Setubal (Urban Gardens) programme, centred at the Viveiro das Amoreiras, offers an alternative path to food security: growing your own.

The programme allocates garden plots to residents, with priority given to low-income families, retired persons and social housing tenants. The organic-only rule reflects both environmental values and the practical concern that chemical pesticides in a dense urban garden setting would affect neighbouring plots.

Beyond food production, the hortas serve as social spaces. Gardeners share seeds, techniques and surplus harvests. For elderly residents, the plots provide physical activity, routine and social contact – factors that research consistently links to better health outcomes. For immigrant families, a garden plot can be a place to grow familiar vegetables that are unavailable or expensive in Portuguese supermarkets.

The planned expansion to approximately 200 plots would make Setubal’s urban garden programme one of the largest in the Lisbon metropolitan area, proportional to the city’s population.

The fabric of solidarity

What distinguishes Setubal’s food solidarity networks is not any single programme but their interconnection. The Banco Alimentar supplies institutions that run canteens; the municipality funds school meals and urban gardens; parishes operate restaurants; NGOs fill the gaps; and thousands of volunteers provide the labour that holds the system together. In a district where economic shocks – from deindustrialisation to pandemic lockdowns – arrive with regularity, this layered, redundant system of mutual aid is not a luxury but a necessity.

The shift from food baskets to electronic cards, and from charity canteens to social restaurants, signals a broader evolution: from emergency relief toward a model that treats food security as a right and its recipients as citizens, not supplicants.

See also

• Cooperatives and Small Business
• The Immigration Mosaic