Category: Accountability

Unfashionable late as usual, but here are the numbers plus some really good news:

June (donations) and July (costs) of running my, not so little anymore, neighbourhood pantry:

Summary

Donations leftover from the previous month: 195,75 Euros

Donations received in June: 811,83

Costs of buying supplies (food and basic cleaning supplies) for the neighbourhood pantry July 2022: 829,18 Euros

Carry over to August: + 178,40 Euros

Link to receipts: (This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉

Also, forgot to mention it last month, I still have 300 Euros of ’emergency cash’ in storage, so all good for the foreseeable future!

Three good news to share:

I will go away for a few days this week to visit friends in Portugal and recharge my batteries. I plan to cuddle their two dogs until they bark for mercy 😉 One of my neighbours will take on the distribution of the things in the pantry, so nobody will be in distress whilst I am gone.

I have a new allotment, slightly farer away than I like (~3km) but it comes with no strings attached, so basically I can do whatever I like with it. Because of the distance I think I will mostly concentrate on fruit trees, berry shrubs and the like, at least for this year. I will also ask some of my neighbours if they would like to help. Any surplus product will go to any project that helps with food insecurity here in Santiago.

I did run a very successful fundraiser on Facebook for Saint James’ Day, so the shelves will be continued to be stocked for a long time, which gives me incredible peace of mind!

That’s all, for now, big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago, SY

PS Forgot to add, my landlord allowed me to put up a third shelf (for clothing, shoes and other useful small items). So happy!

May 2022 Donations and Costs

Sorry, again a few days late, but here are the numbers for April (donations) and May (costs):

Summary

Donations leftover from the previous month: 170,80 Euros

Donations received in April: 495,67 Euros

Costs of buying supplies (food, basic cleaning supplies plus a bottle of gas to cook the food for one of the families) for the neighbourhood pantry May 2022: 794,56 Euros

Carry over to June: – 128,09 Euros

Link to receipts: (This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉

Sorry if this a very short blog post, feeling a bit under the weather right now. As soon as I can I will write up another one with updates on what is going on in my life here in Santiago. And also sorry for the following repeat of what I wrote in an earlier post:

If you want to donate to something specifically, just put a note against it or contact me if you have any special question/idea.

The receipts are now all ‘neighbourhood pantry’ only. The little I need for myself I can go easily shopping on foot for myself. So, less confusion for everybody and more exercise for me!

And yes, there is still a tiny bit of overlap between the pantry and my own supplies. If I forgot to buy tomato sauce for myself, I grab one from the pantry shelves, if my neighbours run out of toilet paper on a Sunday afternoon, I split what I have in the ‘penthouse’ with them. There will be always this kind of overlap, but I keep it to the bare minimum and make sure it balances out both ways. Like I said before, for me it’s not about charity but about sharing what I have and what I can fundraise for with your help.

The ’emergency fund’ of just over 300 Euros (should I need it aka if things are really going haywire/south here in Europe) is still intact, lets pray for peace and less raise in prices (worldwide!).

If you want to contribute to what I do, two very important points first:

Please don’t give more than you can easily afford.

Please don’t give any amount that you wanted already to give to another project.

Said all this, I could never have done all this without the help of all of you scattered around the whole world. So a huge MUCHAS GRACIAS to all of you!

And a last, big Mea Culpa, I know I am horribly bad in keeping up with my email inbox, so if I haven’t acknowledged your donation, please drop me a note in the comments here and I will get to it ASAP.

Also, if you have any questions and/or need clarification about anything, just do the same.

Plus, if you are in Santiago, I am always happy to show you the pantry and chat about my neighbours.

Big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago, SY

Sorry, a few days late, but here are the numbers for March (donations) and April (costs):

Summary

Donations leftover from the previous month: 342,53 Euros

Donations received in March: 407,73 Euros

Costs of buying and distributing things for and via my neighbourhood pantry and fledgling solidarity garden in April 2022: 579,46 Euros

Carry over to May: 170,80 Euros

Link to receipts:

(This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉

Apart of a short mention on a forum and this blog https://egeria.house/moving-easter-cheer-and-updates/ that I wanted to provide a little extra ‘Easter Cheer’ for my neighbours I didn’t do any fundraising in March as I had enough to stock up the pantry 😉 I received a few dedicated donations to that so that there was plenty of chocolate for both adults and kids for Easter. Plus a fluffy soft toy for the little girl born in January! Thank you all so much for that!

So if you want to donate to something specifically, just put a note against it or contact me if you have any special question/idea.

The receipts for April are now all ‘neighbourhood pantry’ only. The little I need for myself I can go easily shopping on foot for myself. So, less confusion for everybody and more exercise for me!

And yes, there is still a tiny bit of overlap between the pantry and my own supplies. If I forgot to buy tomato sauce for myself, I grab one from the pantry shelves, if my neighbours run out of toilet paper on a Sunday afternoon, I split what I have in the ‘penthouse’ with them. There will be always this kind of overlap, but I keep it to the bare minimum and make sure it balances out both ways. Like I said before, for me it’s not about charity but about sharing what I have and what I can fundraise for with your help.

The ’emergency fund’ of just over 300 Euros (should I need it aka if things are really going haywire/south here in Europe) is still intact, lets pray for peace and less raise in prices (worldwide!).

Two more updates:

The original tenants https://www.facebook.com/CaminoCompanions/ of the ‘balcony flat’ are back and, in exchange for one of the neighboours exchanging also their gas bottle will contribute, in kind, to the pantry. Thank you for coffee, sisters!

Garden/Allotment – OOPS! Between moving, having a few not so great days (including a minor accident) and meeting up with pilgrim friends both old and new, I have done very little in the garden lately. Tomorrow two dear friends will be visiting both the pantry and the allotment and I will see how bad the (weed) damage is …

If you want to contribute to what I do, two very important points first:

• Please don’t give more than you can easily afford.
• Please don’t give any amount that you wanted already to give to another project.

Said all this, I could never have done all this without the help of all of you scattered around the whole world. So a huge MUCHAS GRACIAS to all of you!

And a last, once again, a big Mea Culpa, I know I am horribly bad in keeping up with my email inbox, so if I haven’t acknowledged your donation, please drop me a note in the comments here and I will get to it ASAP.

Also, if you have any questions and/or need clarification about anything, just do the same.

Plus, if you are in Santiago, I am always happy to show people the pantry and allotment (if you like weeding, even the better 😉 – just kidding! All with no strings attached!

Big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago, SY

I actually found it really helpful to finally write up this blog post, this way I also see where the money goes exactly to. For simplicity’s sake I have divided it up in three parts:

• Very Short Summary (at the end is the link to the receipts I have).

• Detailed Summary

• Outlook to the Future

Very Short Summary

Donations leftover from previous months: ~1,100 Euros

Costs of buying supplies for my neighbourhood pantry and fledgling solidarity garden in March 2022: 757,47 Euros

Carry over to April: 342,53 Euros

Link to receipts:

(This is a ZIP folder, I am on a Mac and take cybersecurity seriously, but please, still scan it before unzipping, it’s just good practice 😉

Detailed Summary

Towards the end of February I run a birthday fundraiser (now closed) for my neighbourhood pantry on Facebook but you can see it still here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/2428844467245911/ A few donations came also in via Paypal. So, whilst some of this arrived in March, I decided, again for simplicity’s sake, to bundle it all up into February. I haven’t kept any receipts until after the first week of March (sorry about that, will do better in future!), so the ‘carry over’ of ~1,100 Euros donations is a realistic estimate only, as I also spend some of the money on the pantry and garden in the last week of February and the first week of March.

I received one dedicated donation for gardening tools and seeds, so if you want to donate to something specifically, just put a note against it.

Receipts, there are two missing for March, one is for 3 Euros to buy non-prescription medicine for one of the families, the second is for my first online order in March for 76,78 Euros.

All other expenses are documented in the attached files (see above) and I have taken out the items I purchased for me personally.

Here is a summary list of what I have spend your donations on (Froiz, Dia and Gadiz are our local supermarkets btw):

76,78 Euros Food & Basics Froiz, no PDF receipt

114,37 Euros Food & Basics Froiz

3 Euros Medication

19,70 Euros Cooking gas for one family

133,17 Euros Food & Basics Froiz

3,06 Euros Dia Stock-up

95 Euros 5x Fruit and Vegetable Box from https://www.facebook.com/aHortadaAvoa

149.17 Euros Food & Basics Froiz

21,90 Euros Gardening Tools

29,08 Euros Vegetable Seeds

3,06 Euros Gadiz Stock-up

9,90 Euros More gardening tools 😉

3,14 Euros Dia Stock-up

96,14 Euros Food & Basics Froiz

I also received a big in-kind donation consisting of two big shopping bags full of food (lots of lentils and peas!).

Plus I have access to an ’emergency fund’ of just over 300 Euros should I need it aka if things are really going haywire/south here in Europe. But if that doesn’t happen, we hope and pray for it!, the money will go back to the donor.

Outlook to the Future

Like pretty much everywhere else, prices are going sharply and steadily up and nobody knows how everything will play out in the end. As long as I can, I will help my neighbours, because for me it’s not about charity but about sharing what I have and what I can fundraise for, with your help.

If you want to contribute to this, two very important points first:

Please don’t give more than you can easily afford.

Please don’t give anything that you wanted already to give to another project.

Said all this, I could never have done all this without the help of all of you scattered around the whole world. So a huge MUCHAS GRACIAS to all of you!

And a last, big Mea Culpa: I know I am horribly bad in keeping up with my email inbox, so if I haven’t acknowledged your donation, please drop me a note in the comments here and I will get to it ASAP.

Also, if you have any questions and/or need clarification about anything, just do the same.

Big abrazos (hugs) from Santiago, SY

I have to admit that my first thought, when seeing my allotment, was “Where do I even start?”. But with the help of both old and new friends my little ‘solidarity garden’ project is off to a good start!

Yesterday

So, as the rain stopped I went down with my shovel and some other useful things to just have a go at it. Poco a poco / One step at a time. I started by identifying plants that would be worth keeping and getting rid of weeds. Slowly I ‘liberated’ what is now known as the strawberry patch.

Soon Tim joined me and helped weeding more whilst I was cutting down the two blackberry/bramble shrubs that had overtaken much of the plot. Sounds of ‘OUCH’ were frequently heard from both of us 😉

And then a miracle happened: 88 years old Eduardo come by and showed us how it’s really done! In an hour or so he got more of the plot cleared than the two of us together had managed in much more time!

If you think you are too old for something, you really should meet Eduardo, who also happens to have the biggest allotment in our little gardening community!

So, at the end of the day, the three of us managed to weed around half of the plot and prepare a quarter of it for sowing/planting.

Today

I set out in the morning to plant/sow in the now prepared soil. So far I have done: Strawberry and chives (transplanted from last years balcony gardening) and rocket salad/rucola, carrots, radishes and potatoes. As for the big potato plant in the picture, it has been pre-grown on the balcony 😉

Tomorrow

Tomorrow afternoon I will go down to finish weeding around the rose bush and then planting herbs (rosemary, lavender and parsley) around it.

Hopefully by tomorrow 50% of the allotment will be planted/sown and ready to produce a lot of healthy food for both me and my neighbours!

Personally

I have to say that even that I knew already that (balcony) gardening was good for me, I never imagined what a huge, positive impact the allotment would have on my mental health. In short, in just two days I went from “Thank God I don’t have to leave the flat today to run errands!” to “Sun, when are you finally getting up so that I can go out gardening?”.

This allotment truly has become my happy place …

First of all, I should have written this blog post much, much earlier! But better late then never, as the saying goes. The reason I didn’t do so earlier is twofold: One is ‘brain fog’ and the other is that the whole ‘neighbourhood pantry’ thing developed so slowly and steadily that I actually never really thought about reporting where and how the donations are used that I have received for it.

I promise to do better in future! From now on I will post every beginning of the month how much I have received in donations, how and for what it was spent and keep all the receipts. I really don’t have the time, energy and concentration to do this retrospective, sorry. What I can do is giving you a quick breakdown and attach to this post my shopping bill for this week.

Weekly shopping: Typically around 120-140 Euros, sometimes more, rarely less. This is all the usual food staples plus basic hygiene and cleaning materiel. I do this online and get it delivered as it is far too heavy for me to carry. A few items, if look at the list, are clearly for me, but I have deducted that already from the amount I wrote above.

Weekly fruit&vegetable box: 19 Euros, I don’t get a receipt for this, but will ask for a monthly one in future. My own fruit and vegetables, I buy separately.

Also, my own food stuff etc is in the kitchen, and food and other things for the pantry are in my storage/roundabout room.

1 – 2/month help for one family to buy gas to cook with, 18,75 Euros per bottle. It doesn’t make sense to give people food that they then can’t cook … and yes, I get a receipt, will keep that in future.

Additional shopping, that I do on foot and locally as some things are cheaper and/or only available in my local supermarket and not in the one I use for ‘online’ shopping. I also use it to stock up if I have run out of something important earlier then expected. Difficult to say how much it’s, I would guess between 50 and 100 Euros/month. Again, from today on I will keep the receipts.

There is the very occasional ’emergency’ request and equally the very occasional drop-in from somebody else, outside the families, but that is small stuff. But, once again, if that happens in future, I will make a note.

So, that is basically what I spend monthly to help four families (~16 people) to get through this challenging times. Bearing in mind fluctuations in need and prices around 700 Euros/month. Food prices have already risen here in Europe and are expected to rise further due to the war in Ukraine.

Thank you for reading this far, here the link to the PDF of this weeks shopping bill.

Please expect a more detailed blog post with receipts like this beginning of each months, this keeps me accountable and you know where the money goes to. If you have any comments, questions or would like more information about something, please put them in a comment. And if you come to Santiago, I am happily showing you around, just give me a bit of notice so that I am at home and not in the allotment 😉