ICD interns volunteering at the Spandauer Christmas Market

December 2011

In cooperation with Berlin Tafel and organized by Lücke. Linda

The ICD Interns had the opportunity to do voluntary work for the Berliner Tafel at the Spandauer Christmas Market from the 25th of November 2012 until 23rd of December 2012. It was a great opportunity for the interns to come in contact with Berlin`s local society and with the work of the Berliner Tafel.

What is the Berliner Tafel?

In February 1993, The Berliner Tafel was founded as an alternative to the food surplus and the throw- away society. In the beginning, a handful of dedicated women drove their personal cars to bakeries and markets to collect donations and edible goods and distribute them to homeless shelters, mission stations and soup kitchens. Today the situation is as follows:

Approximately 600 activists at the Berliner Tafel collect groceries, then sort and distribute up 660,000 kg per month. The work of the Berliner Tafel is based on three pillars:
  1. 350 social services, counseling centers and support centers of all types are supplied with food.
  2. As part of LOAF and SOUL, a campaign of the Berliner Tafel, the churches and the RBB, the Berliners in need at 44 distribution points in parishes receive food for one euro per week. 1,300 volunteers are active as part of this non-profit initiative.
Through these two initiatives alone, the Berliner Tafel has reached 125,000 Berliners - a third of whom are children and adolescents.

The main aim at the Spandauer Christmas market was to represent the work of the Berliner Tafel, to get in contact with the local community by creating dialogue, selling christmas cards, receiving food donations as well as money donations for the several projects of the Berliner Tafel.

We very much thank the Berliner Tafel for the opportunity to get involved with community work and we hope that the cooperation between the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy and the Berliner Tafel, will be a long and fruitful.