Donations not only needed at Christmas time

Christiane Fiedler

The run-up to Christmas is particularly busy for Christiane Fiedler. She is the director of Chemnitzer Tafel e.V. and co-founded the food, clothing and goods distribution centre in Chemnitz. She has been there for 20 years. "Before Christmas, most people remember that they have to do something good just before the New Year," says the 56-year-old, adding: "But people also need our help in the other eleven months of the year." A good two weeks before Christmas, we met up with Christiane Fiedler at the Chemnitz food bank on Zwickauer Straße, near the terminus of tram line 1.

Who comes to you?
Christiane Fiedler: It's very diverse. They are young adults, families, pensioners, people with low incomes, people in temporary emergency situations, asylum seekers, migrants - in other words, people from all walks of life.

What do people have to prove in order to collect donations from you?
When they come for the first time, they don't need anything at first. Our staff explain to people that they have to register if they want to come back. To register on Mondays, we ask them to show us either their basic income support notice or their ALG II notice, housing benefit notice, asylum seeker benefit notice or similar. So anything that is a state benefit and identifies someone as being in need can be shown.

Christiane Fiedler and her colleagues supply around 1,600 people every week. In addition to regular deliveries, such as to the soup kitchen or the homeless project of Selbsthilfe 91 on Heinrich-Schütz-Straße, people also come to the distribution centre on Zwickauer Straße 247 and to the distribution point in Frankenberg on weekdays. The Frankenberg food bank is a project of the Chemnitz food bank and has been open once a week since 2006.

Has the number increased in recent years?
No, you can't say that. It has remained relatively stable. Even when many refugees came to the city. Sometimes this can be explained by the improvement in the labour market. However, people are often also placed in measures via the job centre.

Where do you get food and material donations from?
We get a lot from food markets. Ideally also from companies. However, we don't have many food-producing companies in the area. We get some from commercial establishments or organisations. In terms of monetary donations, it's companies, private individuals and court orders.
What makes the Tafel special is not just that we help people. We also raise awareness of the need to not always throw everything away. Even when it comes to baked goods alone: At the end of the day, far too much is simply thrown away. And that can't be the point. The approach alone is incomprehensible. Retailers say: "The customer should get fresh goods until closing time." I always say: do customers really want that? Do I really insist on a certain type of bread just before closing time or do I just take a different one?

In addition to distributing food, people in need can also buy clothes or other items from the food bank for a small fee. Can people actually come here with their clothing donations?
Of course, we also accept such donations. It is advisable to call in advance because we have a few criteria. For example, we are currently not accepting summer clothing because we only have limited storage space. Then, of course, there are also different requirements. What some people think others still wear is not always right. For example, we don't accept worn underwear and nightwear.
At the moment, we are also increasingly being offered broken Christmas decorations. Smoking men with a broken foot or angels with broken wings. These are the kind of things that make me a bit disgruntled.

Are your offers sometimes misused?
We haven't been able to find out for ourselves. It was brought to our attention. Of course, we always ask for your understanding that we have to check the neediness. We are a non-profit organisation and have to submit proof to the tax office.
We only work with donations - whether financial, food or donations in kind. I can only guarantee that these donations are not misused if I can put my hand in the fire for everyone who comes to us. And I can only do that by checking and recording this.

How many employees do you have?
We have over 50 volunteers. There is a really high demand at the moment. I hold interviews and have people in for trial work. We have three permanent employees who work different hours, but as an organisation we have to finance them on our own. The majority of people on site are women. The men who work with us tend to work in the field. They sit in the car and bring us the food. Funnily enough, we can't find that many men to do the work directly in the house. We have to do a lot of cleaning here. Vegetables have to be cleaned and sorted out, then of course the serving area always has to be clean. Men just don't like doing that. They are more in favour of manual work.

You helped set up the food bank in Chemnitz in 1997. You've been involved since 1996. How did you get involved?
Yes, I started 20 years ago. I was unemployed myself at the time and was going through a personal crisis. I was in my mid-30s and the children were out of the woods. I'm not someone who stays at home for every little ailment. Exactly what a boss should be looking for, I thought.
But nobody really wanted me anyway. Then I saw a programme on TV about the Hamburger Tafel and thought: "That would be it! If only we had something like that!" And a short time later, I read a newspaper article in which social workers from the AWO and VIP Chemnitz e.V. explained that it would be great if a food bank like that was set up in Chemnitz. I contacted them and signalled my willingness.
Then I did some research on how to set up a food bank and looked for fellow campaigners. In May 1997, there were so many people that we were able to found the organisation.

Was it a rocky road at the beginning?
Yes, you could say that. In the beginning, nobody knew about the food bank. Many people thought we were representatives of school boards (laughs). That wasn't so easy. But it was a great time. I got to know a lot. I was able to gain new experiences.
Then I went to the national association's food bank meeting in Dresden and was so highly motivated. I got to know a lot of people from different food banks there. That was great. As a result, we were given our first car. In the beginning, we were more of a transport company and got things from A to B. We didn't really like that at all. We wanted to be more of a central distribution centre where people could come to us.
We then looked for premises. One of us found the former daycare centre in Lohstraße and contacted the city. We were told that we could move in there, but that we might have to leave at any time because the complex was to be demolished.
We then opened our first distribution centre in Lohstraße in 1998. When we moved in there, we didn't have any money yet. One or the other paid the rent. A large donation then paid the rent for a whole year. That was a huge support. Then we grew bit by bit, combined with my full-time employment, because it's a full-time job. This enabled us to put the food bank on a firm footing. And we will be celebrating our 20th anniversary next year.

Are you satisfied with how the Chemnitz food bank has established itself and how the people of Chemnitz see the food bank?
Christiane Fiedler: I think so. We try very hard to present a positive image to the public. That's what we live from! Donors only give us their things if they trust us. We really do have a lot of people who regularly donate small amounts to us.

Is it fair to say that people in Chemnitz are particularly generous?
This question really isn't easy to answer as I don't have any comparisons. When I think of my good colleague from Hamburg, who has unfortunately passed away in the meantime, and who was always a good teacher to me: she sometimes stood in the theatre in Hamburg with a hat and collected donations. She received between 7,000 and 8,000 euros in the evening. However, you have to bear in mind that Hamburg is not only a much larger city, but also a much wealthier one. It would therefore be a little presumptuous to hope for such a response in Chemnitz. Looking back, however, I have to say that there are many, many loyal supporters of the Tafel in our city, on whom we have been able to rely even in difficult times. I am confident that the food bank will continue to receive this valuable support in the future.

Do you have any wishes for next year's 20th anniversary?
I would like us to find good new talent. We are also 20 years older and sooner or later a generation will have to come after us to continue the work of the food bank. Then, of course, I would like us to be financially secure. Food bank work can't just be seen as voluntary work. Because even voluntary work needs a full-time office to support you. That's what I would like to see: That we can fill the most important positions with full-time employees.