The Melilla Food Bank has been declared a Public Utility Association by the Ministry of the Interior. The Government Delegate, Sabrina Moh, the President of the entity, Pedro Paredes, and the Director of the Functional Area of Agriculture of the Government Delegation, Isabel Bassets, appeared this morning to announce this statement that includes Order INT/205/2025, of February 24.
The head of the Government Delegation thanked the work done by the Food Bank and the collaboration they provide to the institution she heads. A collaboration, he added, “that has been evident throughout this time since, from the Government Delegation, through the area of Agriculture, an important work has been done by the vulnerable families of the city” in reference to the distribution of food that has been carried out during these years from the Government Delegation and in which “the Food Bank has always had an important role”.
But, in addition, Moh has valued the work that the entity that presides over Pedro Paredes does “with vulnerable families so that the distribution of food always reaches all households.”
For this reason, he stressed the importance of the association being declared of public utility since “it will have a direct impact and a benefit in the families of Melilla”, so “it is good news for the people of Melilla because we continue working, we continue to focus on those who need us most, but, above all, we also continue to provide tools to improve the situation as much as possible”. In fact, it has stressed that it is the only entity in the territorial scope of Melilla that has been declared a public utility association.
Effort of many
In his speech to the media, Paredes recalled that, in 2000, after many years of “humanitarian activity to help the most disadvantaged, it was recommended that it would be important for us to request the Declaration of Public Utility.”
A request, as he explained, thinking “not only from a social point of view, for all the work that has been done and that so many people, volunteers, bank staff, companies, donors in general, media … but also because we thought it was important because of the tax benefits that it can give to companies, especially corporate social responsibility or corporate social responsibility, both physical donations and monetary donations”.
For this reason, the procedure began in which he highlighted the “essential collaboration” of the Government Delegation, its chief executive, Sabrina Moh, and the head of the Functional Area of Agriculture, Isabel Bassets, “because there are many memories of activities of several years and everything that entails all those reports that must be presented”, referring to the documentation presented by the entity to demonstrate that public utility, as well as the Ministry of Social Policies.
“I want to show the support of Sabrina Moh in all this since we started it because, if not, we could not achieve it,” she said. “We are proud that all the people of Melilla who support the Food Bank have been able to obtain this declaration of Public Utility by the Interior Ministry because in the end it also affects our representativeness of Melilla, throughout the Spanish Federation of Food Banks, in all that work that is done in Melilla from a social point of view.”
A job, he added, in coordination with the Administration, “so that all those resources, all those donations really reach the most needy, avoiding duplication.”
“We began all these procedures for several years and last February the Internal Order was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE),” he said, while acknowledging that this recognition “fills us with satisfaction”, especially “for so many people who are collaborating every day, for all that essential volunteering that we have to get the work done”.
Paredes has also had words of thanks to all the companies, clubs, supermarkets and Melillense citizens “who make an effort donating food” and collaborating in the different solidarity activities that the association carries out throughout the year. “We have that powerful, intense social commitment of the people of Melilla. Therefore, I want to acknowledge that work and the support of so many people,” he said.
A gratitude that Pedro Paredes has extended to the media of the city for the “extraordinary work of dissemination of all that work”.
Tax breaks on donations
As the President of the Food Bank has said, apart from the social importance of the statement of the Ministry of the Interior, it is very important because the Patronage Law and the amendment in the year 2023 of this law “greatly favors that the donations of companies and individuals are stimulated, developed, because the tax deductions in all these donations are very important and very intense.”
In fact, he assured that “we have already noticed that, practically in two weeks, since we have the public utility, two food distribution companies, two supermarkets, which are well known in the city, have contacted us for the signing of collaboration agreements so that all those surpluses that cannot be sold or consumed, but that are in perfect condition, the Food Bank can recover it and can distribute it free to vulnerable families.”
Therefore, he stressed that "it is important to know, from the point of view of donations, both physical and economic, that in the corporate social responsibility projects of the different companies of Melilla, that law of patronage improved last year greatly facilitates tax deductions when donating to public utility associations".
“At the level you deserve”
For her part, the Director of the Functional Area of Agriculture has reported the strong relationship that the Delegation maintains with the entity chaired by Pedro Paredes
“for a very long time” since “the Operational Program of Food Aid for the Most Disadvantaged People has been a program in which the Food Bank has collaborated with us since its inception”.
Despite the fact that this program has been managed directly by the Autonomous Communities and Cities, “we have continued to collaborate in everything they have requested precisely because we know that vulnerable families, although they are served with the Minimum Vital Income, from the Food Bank help these families” and added that, “the more donations they receive, the more they can help these families”.
Bassets has praised this recognition from the Ministry of the Interior to the Food Bank because “this new category puts it at a level it deserves” and has indicated that “the people who work with them are very sensitive to all this issue”.
“The social workers do a great job there and the vulnerable families of Melilla will be improved due to this bureaucratic work that we have developed in collaboration from the Delegation and that has been granted by the Ministry of the Interior for the first time in the city,” he said.