We are transforming the Solidarity Warehouse into a permanent community base for social support, food security, and response to future disasters.
RTP News Report: Young people created a solidarity warehouse in Marinha Grande to support victims of the storms.
The Solidarity Warehouse was created to respond to an emergency. When storms and floods hit the region, the response began with volunteers, solidarity, and action on the ground. But it quickly became much more than a temporary solution.
So far, we have managed to support 224 households, more than 1,031 people, mobilize 312 volunteers, distribute around €100,000 worth of essential goods and maintain €80,000 in available inventory , in coordination with institutional partners, namely the Marinha Grande City Council. All this was achieved with limited resources, but with an enormous capacity for mobilization.
Now we want to go further. We want to transform this 4,000m2 space into a permanent community infrastructure — to meet today's needs and prepare the community for tomorrow's crises.
The goal is to consolidate the Solidarity Warehouse as a center with three integrated missions:
Social support and distribution of goods
Continue collecting, organizing, and delivering essential goods to vulnerable families, including building materials, appliances, furniture, clothing, food, and emergency support.
More than just securing donations, we want to strengthen the infrastructure that allows aid to reach those who need it: the capacity for collection, transport, sorting, storage, inventory, and distribution, with organized teams and adequate resources to respond on a larger scale and more effectively.
Food safety
To create a Re-food food support center in the area, with the capacity to strengthen the response in the municipality and ensure that no one is left without access to food during times of vulnerability.
This center will function as a point for receiving, sorting, storing, and distributing food, with adequate food safety and hygiene conditions, capacity for contingency reserves, and support for extended responses.
In a crisis context, it can also function as a community support haven, with the capacity to accommodate and support prolonged operations.
More than just distributing food, we want to create a food infrastructure with the real capacity to prevent shortages, respond to emergencies, and support the community when needed.
Logistics base for disasters and emergencies.
To structure the warehouse as a complementary operational support base for future crises, with the capacity to pre-position equipment, store reserves, support prolonged operations, and reinforce the response of the authorities.
The goal is to consolidate a capacity that has already begun to be built: teams with operational experience, resources for emergency response, and on-the-ground coordination with entities and authorities.
This space can support preparedness, logistics, temporary accommodation, and operational support in disaster scenarios, a unique infrastructure in the central region of the country.
With this campaign we want to:
- to upgrade the warehouse and the office area
- fix the roof and improve the conditions of the space.
- create conditions to accommodate the food security center.
- strengthen logistics capacity, storage and equipment
- to consolidate this community-based foundation for social support and crisis response.
We're not just improving a building. We're building infrastructure that can protect the community for many years to come.
Prepare today. Protect tomorrow.
