During the pandemic, demand for Mallorca's food banks and soup kitchens shot up. Those were exceptional times, but the demand continues to differ to what it once was and is also greater than it used to be.
As Brother José Vicente of the San Antonio de los Caputxins food service explains, the queues that form every morning outside the convent for a bocadillo and a drink are no longer "out of hunger but out of precarious living, out of not making ends meet". "Before, people who had an income didn't come asking for a bocadillo."
Natalia Gamarro, coordinator of the Tardor association's soup kitchen, is of the same view: "We're not only serving people who can't cover their basic needs because they're homeless, but also because today's rent costs between 1,200 and 1,500 euros."
Rosario Fuster, a volunteer at the Zaqueo soup kitchen, says: "We started by serving the socially excluded - drug addicts, the alcoholics, the ex-convicts - but now we have people coming in who have small pensions that are not enough to make ends meet. Many of them don't live on the streets."
"We've encountered a new profile in recent years: the working poor who, despite having a job, can't make ends meet because their salary goes to paying the rent and can't afford a balanced diet," explains Teresa Riera, coordinator of the homeless and housing project at the Church's Cáritas charity.
Cáritas have a soup kitchen in Inca, which is part of a larger project for the homeless. "In the soup kitchen, we have a very high number of people who have become homeless or live in substandard housing, so they come because they have nowhere to cook or store food. But some who come to eat have a home. Others are families with children who take home cooked meals, and others are elderly people with limited resources and mobility issues, so meals are delivered to their homes."
The Tardor soup kitchen in Palma starts work at 7am for the preparation and packaging of food. At 12 noon it opens, and people can pick up a four-pack - two meals, dairy products, and pastries. "We would like to be able to provide more, to have a space where people could eat inside in a more dignified manner, and cover a hot meal in the evening," says Natalia Gamarro.
The number of people in precarious financial situations is growing, driven, in part, by the difficulties in accessing housing. But the number of homeless people remains very high. "I would venture to say that 70% of the people who come are homeless. There are also people over 50 with very low pensions who spend their money paying for a room to sleep in," says Gamarro. At Tardor, they serve almost 300 people a day.
"This year we are compiling statistics, and on average, 223 people come, although some days it's 260," explains Brother José Vicente. A third are "chronic homeless people" and the other two-thirds are "poor workers and retirees". At Zaqueo, they serve around 250 people. "There are more men than women, and most can't make ends meet," notes Rosario Fuster.
In Inca last year, Cáritas served 283 people through the centre's three-meal programmes. "The dining room serves around 110 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners a day," Teresa Riera says. "People come here who have become homeless and are living in a tent or on the streets."