For 15 years – almost a quarter of her life – Eva Schenk has been volunteering with the Caritas table south-east in the district of Munich. The woman from Ottobrunn has been helping out from the very beginning, sorting the food donated by supermarkets and other shops Friday after Friday and then distributing it to people in need. And of these, in turn, more than ever before are flocking to the distribution points in Ottobrunn, Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn and Aying: A total of 480 people are being supplied with food there, and the need is even greater. For the first time since the Tafel was founded in 2007, there is a waiting list that is constantly growing. Because Caritas currently receives ten new inquiries every week.
“You can tell that more and more people need help,” says Eva Schenk. Many refugees are currently coming from Ukraine. But they alone do not explain the increasing demand. “We also take care of pensioners and single parents,” emphasizes Eva Schenk. After all, the rising prices for energy and food are causing problems for people with low incomes in particular. But while the number of recipients and inquiries is constantly increasing, the opposite is true for donations. According to Caritas, you get less and less food from supermarkets. It is noticeable here that they are increasingly better at calculating in order to reduce the amount of food thrown away. In any case, Tisch Süd-Ost mainly gets its groceries from small retailers, bakeries, gas stations and farm shops. Goods such as dairy products are also bought in.
Strictly speaking, the Caritas offer is called “Tisch Süd-Ost plus”, because in addition to the food distribution, there is also social counseling. The project is financed by donations; in addition, there is the support of the communities and local parishes. Meanwhile, the food distribution is carried out by about a hundred volunteers. One of them is Eva Schenk. She responded to a newspaper ad in 2007 and has been a helper ever since. “For me, it’s about the fact that less food is wasted,” says the 64-year-old. “My heart bleeds when I see a yoghurt being thrown away just because it’s one day expired.” Second, there is the social aspect. “It’s a misconception that only the well-off live here in the region,” says Schenk. In fact, there are also poor people in the rich district of Munich who are suffering above all from the high rents – and now also from rising prices.
With all the sad fates that Eva Schenk is regularly confronted with in her voluntary work, there are also rays of hope. “The happiest moments are when people come to us and return their ID because they have found a job, for example,” says the Ottobrunn native. “Then we’re happy for them.”
In the series “My number” the SZ presents people every day until Christmas, in whose life a number has a special meaning – from 1 to 24 like in an advent calendar.