‘When the truck comes by early, you can get good things’: the routine of families looking for food in the garbage

The fight for survival has fully filled the days of Sandra Maria de Freitas.

At 57 years old and with painful calluses on her feet, the result of decades of intense work as a washerwoman, she explains that the injuries make it difficult to dispute food discarded in garbage trucks by supermarkets in an upscale neighborhood in Fortaleza (CE).

She and other families face the heat of more than 30°C and the risk of finding contaminated food, like other cases that recently made the news across the country.

“My feet burn like pepper. The calluses ignite, I scrape it with a razor and go on with life. I wake up at 4 am every morning, pick up my wheelbarrow and come wait for the garbage truck at that same spot, near the Comunidade dos Trilhos, where I live. Now, there’s no longer a fixed time to go. Sometimes it’s late at night. Other times, around noon. I experience this uncertainty. , concerned.

When showing a newly found sausage package, Sandra lists what she regularly consumes. “Day in, day out, you can find some bananas, carrots, some berries a little crushed that rich people throw away. It’s very sad to have to look in the garbage, but now it’s the solution.”

According to her, three installments of emergency aid granted by the Federal Government during the pandemic came to alleviate the suffering for a few moments. The last installment of the benefit was paid to the public this October, and beneficiaries are still awaiting definitions about Auxílio Brasil, a program that will replace Bolsa Família.

“Now I don’t know what it’s going to look like,” says Sandra. “The information doesn’t arrive right. This brings anguish. I’m not able to work as I used to. I don’t have anyone to take care of me. What has alleviated the situation are some food baskets that some people donate for charity.”

Sandra’s house, at the back of a building in Comunidade dos Trilhos, has only one room, shared by her and a man with a physical and visual disability. “They even cut off water and electricity. Gas is out very often. It’s costing more than R$100. Sometimes, when we find meat, we have to cook with alcohol, (at risk) of getting burned”, she comments apprehensively.

Your dream is to buy a hot dog cart to work on your doorstep. “That way, I wouldn’t have to walk so far, giving a relief to my feet. I’d put my business under the tree in front of my house, and people would come and buy. My dignity would be my best gift.”

With increasing poverty and food prices, access to food has been a challenge for many. According to the Ministry of Citizenship, Ceará has 5.1 million people living in poverty and extreme poverty, with a family income ranging between half and three minimum wages. Across Brazil, 19 million lived with some degree of food insecurity at the end of 2020, according to calculations by the Brazilian Research Network on Food and Nutritional Sovereignty and Security.

As a child, Maria de Lourdes da Silva was torn between the dream of becoming a nurse or a veterinarian. However, given the economic difficulties faced throughout her life, aggravated by the pandemic, today, at 43 years of age, she belongs to the group of more than 14 million unemployed Brazilians, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) .

According to her, the monthly aid of R$ 261 has been insufficient for basic expenses for 30 days. Unable to pay rent, she lives in the house of acquaintances with her husband and daughter and, in addition to hunger, she lives with the fear of eviction.

“I even worked as a caregiver for the elderly, but with the pandemic, everything stopped. We live like this, day after day, without security. The worst thing in the world is to depend on others. To survive, I do. I call for recycling and, whenever possible, I’m on duty waiting for the garbage truck to go by in search of food,” he details.

Among the foods often found are fruits, vegetables, meats and yogurts. “When the truck comes by early, you can get good things, bologna, bread, sausage and damage. When it doesn’t, you don’t have much choice,” he laments.

Maria de Lourdes’ fragile health also inspires care. Diabetic, is affected by an eye infection. “My eyes are red because of a bacteria. I found makeup in the trash, used it and stayed like that. I even used medicine, but I can’t afford the right treatment. We need assistance and jobs. There is no lack of disposition. to fight for what I need. I don’t want to live in luxury. I just need an opportunity,” he says.

Also unemployed, Maria Goretti Dutra, 48, says that hunger, in addition to weakening the body, weakens the soul. Mother of two daughters, the Bolsa Família beneficiary says that she has already “looked at the cupboard and saw that she had nothing” to eat.

“My focus is to feed my daughters. Seeing each one of them eating fills my belly. Can you believe it? Sometimes, to withstand the stride, I eat flour with water”, he describes.

The monthly benefit is being used to cover only gas cylinders. “Imagine you find food in the garbage and you can’t boil it to disinfect it? I spend a lot of gas a month on that alone. In addition, when it’s not possible, there’s nothing to do. Smell? Okay? All that’s left is to eat,” she cries.

Anice Monteiro, aged 64, says that her heart problems have made the battle for a living difficult. “On September 28, after climbing into the garbage truck to pick up some vegetables and fill my cart, my back and chest began to agonize. I almost fainted, I left here in the SAMU ambulance and spent a few days hospitalized later. of a catheterization. Today, I see myself having to buy a lot of medicine while I lack the basics to eat”, he details.

Less than a month after her admission, Anice was back at Rua Bento Albuquerque, the same place where she got sick. “I came to try to find food donors. Here, many rich people pass by in luxury cars. It doesn’t even seem like we’re in the same city. Relying on the compassion of others is a hope because I’m not in a position to work now, much less in this sun hot. Before, I earned R$30 to R$40 washing clothes. Now, I can’t do it anymore.”

Help

At the other end, pharmacist and teacher Renata Euletério is among the people trying to help these families with food baskets. She began to get involved with the cause by watching a video that went viral on October 18 showing people fetching food from a garbage truck in Fortaleza.

“People from Fortaleza and from other cities began to mobilize. I started to encourage my family’s group and expanded the volunteer network,” he says.

The main objective, says Renata, is to gather data from families in food insecurity to guide them to public policies available in Fortaleza.

“We are collecting the names, telephone numbers and qualifications of these people. We want to carry out a registry to try to help them in their job search, to find out if they are vaccinated against Covid-19 and to guide them in relation to protection agencies So far, we have delivered food baskets to 13 families, we are struggling to understand the demand of each one of them so that they have autonomy in relation to programs that already exist in the city, such as aid, medical care and so many other spheres.”

In a statement, the Municipality of Fortaleza stated that the families of the people who appear in the viral video of the garbage truck will be accompanied by the Secretariat for Human Rights and Social Development, which says it makes frequent visits to points in the capital of Ceará with water and snacks.

The municipal government also says that other actions are underway aimed at the vulnerable population, such as an active search that carried out 6,000 approaches to identify this public and direct it to social services, in addition to the distribution of 300,000 food baskets and the offer of 100 thousand meals/month.

The government of Ceará, in turn, says that 255,000 tickets for Vale Gás Social were distributed between April and May to vulnerable families in municipalities in Ceará.