Gran Recapte Food Drive Opens 2,100 Donation Points Across Catalonia
The Gran Recapte food drive opened more than 2,100 donation points across Catalonia. How to give food or money, and why working families now need help.
The Gran Recapte, Catalonia’s big annual food collection run by the Banc dels Aliments (the food bank), started on Friday with more than 2,100 donation points across the region, the Barcelona broadcaster betevé reported. Shoppers can leave food at supermarkets and municipal markets on Friday and Saturday, and money donations stay open until Nov. 29.
This is the 18th edition, and for the first time it is dedicated to one group: what the food bank calls “les noves pobreses” (the new poverty), meaning people who have a job or a pension but still struggle to pay for food at the end of the month.
Working families at the food bank
The Banc dels Aliments says having a job no longer guarantees, in every case, that a family can cover rent, electricity and basic bills and still buy enough food. According to the organizers, the cost of living rose 21% between 2020 and 2025, pushing many households into that position.
Carme Casacuberta, president of the Catalan association of food banks and of the Girona food bank, told public broadcaster 3Cat that more and more people with jobs are turning to the food banks, and that the problem affects the whole country. The organizers say the drive is still needed to support the one hundred seventy thousand people who receive help from Catalonia’s food banks every month.
How to donate
About fifteen thousand volunteers are expected to take part, most of them at the entrances of supermarkets and municipal markets. The food bank is asking mainly for oil, milk and canned goods, plus other nutritious foods such as fish, meat and eggs.
Money donations can be made in several ways:
- By Bizum (Spain’s mobile payment system) from your bank’s app, using the Gran Recapte code 33596
- By phone on 900 898 076
- Online at granrecapte.org, until Nov. 29
- By bank transfer, to an account the food bank has published
Who is behind the collection
The drive relies on a network of more than 569 social organizations linked to the food banks, 30 food retail chains, municipal markets and neighborhood shops, plus more than 400 companies that donate money, equipment and logistics, according to 3Cat.
In Barcelona, the opening event took place at the Mercat del Clot with Mayor Jaume Collboni and food bank officials. 3Cat listed Raúl Moreno, the Catalan government’s minister for social rights and inclusion, among the expected guests, along with Lluís Fatjó-Vilas, president of the Barcelona food bank, and its director, Elisabet Viladomiu. Reports differ on the day of the symbolic start: betevé placed it on Friday, while 3Cat’s earlier report described it as Wednesday at 9 a.m.
What it means for Barcelona residents
Last year the Gran Recapte raised 5.2 million euros, a figure that combines the estimated value of food collected in shops and the cash donations. That collection allowed the food bank to distribute more than twenty thousand tonnes of food through more than 500 social organizations, according to betevé.
For shoppers in Barcelona, the practical change this weekend is the volunteers at supermarket doors and market entrances on Friday and Saturday. After that, donations continue only as money, by Bizum, phone or the website, until Nov. 29.
