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All sorts of people participate in our Vitamin Commando project, since anyone is able to join at any time without prior notice, even if only for a single occasion. There is however a so-called ‘core team’, people who participate in nearly every sandwich prep and delivery. We have been talking to two such people: Gergő Szőts and Dávid Orosz about this project and how it became an integral part of their week.

How did you first hear about the project and why did you became regular members?

Gergő Szőts: I have first heard about BBM in January 2017. I have seen their notice on some the internet portal, they have announced a “Crisis!” project due to the extremely cold weather that winter, and were looking for enthusiastic volunteers who would be able to help the homeless one way or another. At that time, I was looking for some kind of volunteer work anyway, so when i have seen that notice i have decided to visit their then base to see how i could help. They were very intense days, a lot of people came to answer their call, and it had felt good to do something useful. After the “Crisis” was over, there was no question that I wanted to attend regularly. Many people have started out at the same time as me and a great team has formed. The hard core members welcomed the new people with open arms, even organised several ‘get-to-know each other and the organization’ parties. This is the main reason of why I became a regular member. I have got to know a great many honest, kind and awesome people here. I have listened to their stories, have let them shape my worldview, and I feel like I became a better person thanks to them. Not to mention feeling like I was doing something good at the same time!

Dávid Orosz: I have started participating in Vitamin Commando because of the 50-hour mandatory School Community Service. I have chosen it because my classmates were here, also because of their 50 hours. They have told me that in addition to helping those in need, you get to complete your hours in a really great atmosphere, so I have thought I’d give it a try. The 50 hours is longe since over but i have stayed. For more than two years now i participate in every sandwich making because these two nights have became part of my week.

What keeps you here?

G.Sz.: Other than the great company, there are two things I can say for sure that have made me a return sandwich maker. The first one is the people that this is all about: the homeless. For me, it is a great feeling to have some time to talk to them while making the deliveries –  to listen to them, to realize that they really are just like us in every way – even if they live on the margins of our society. We help each other a lot – even if they do not do it knowingly – I give them sandwiches, fruit, a few kind words and an audience. For their part: they teach me with their stories that there is no point taking ourselves and every little problem with the world too seriously. The second thing are the rookies. It is great to see people being interested in others, wanting to help, wishing to do something. They are coming because they feel that life should be about more than just surviving. This gives me the desire to come back time and again, because it just energizes me!

D.O.: What keeps me coming back is that i get to meet my friends there. It is kind of a relaxing activity, but at the same time it is charity. I think it is great that i get to do both ot these things at the same time.

How does it feel to be part of the Vitamin Commando?

G.Sz.: Sometimes when I leave sandwiches next to a sleeping homeless person, I feel like Santa Claus. ☺ I imagine them waking up in the morning; seeing some fruit, a sandwich, and maybe even some chocolate next to their head, and wondering where they have got it. Of course, most of the time they know, they know us very well! Jokes aside: it feels great to be a vitamin commando member, our community is awesome!

D.O.: It is great to be a Vitamin Commando member. We are in good company and the mood is always great, be it while making sandwiches or deliveries.

Photo by: István Juhász

No matter it is a weekday or weekend, daytime or late night, or even a random hour: volunteers of the Food Saving Project (www.etelmentes.hu) are always eager to deliver donated (leftover) food to homeless shelters across Budapest. They do this with no compensation, in their free time, with their own car and at their own cost, just to make sure that edible leftovers land on plates of those in need, instead of the trashbin. The donors are mostly restaurants, event agencies or party planners: the minimum number of portions volunteers are able to pick up is at least 40-50. The results speak for themselves: the 30-member project team has saved close to 20,000 portions since the launch of the project.

We interviewed Jean-Louis Murris and Bea Beliczai about the Food Saving Project and volunteering. Bea first got involved as a delivery volunteer but she has been also active in the project’s coordination since last year, assisting the two projects leads.

What made you join the project? Where did you first hear about the initiative? What made you to choose this type of volunteering?

Bea: Food waste is a problem that I have found myself coming back to for a while yet I felt pretty much helpless. It is shocking to see how much food ends up in the trash bin day by day while hunger is still widespread. I thought the two endpoints would just need to be linked somehow yet obviously food waste is a complex issue. I was thrilled when I first read an article about the project: there is a group who actually works on rescueing food and getting it to those in need. I felt immensely empowered and has been an active member of the project team since November 2018.

Jean-Louis: It has been around 4 years since I first came across Budapest Bike Maffia online. First I got involved in the Vitamin Commando project: I found the idea of connecting biking and helping others ingenious. I got truly inspired and founded the ’+1 sandwich – students for those in need’ project within the Gustave Eiffel French Primary and Secondary School 3 years ago. I have been also active in the Food Saving Project for 2 years, helping deliver leftover catering food to homeless shelters.

What is your day job?

Bea: When I first applied I was a stay-at-home mom with my two and a half year old son. I believed it would absolutely make sense to get started in delivering food with him. I was right! What is more, my little one exceeded expectations in all means and was keen on helping me: he could not wait to carry boxes and push the teacart with me. Since he started the kindergarden, I have had more time to run my own projects (publishing books) and also had the chance to take on extra responsibilities at the Food Saving project.

Jean-Louis: I have been retired for 3 years so I could dedicate more time to serve charitable causes. In the last 14 years of my career, I worked in the leadership of the French secondary school; before that, I had been a language tutor at the French Institute.

How does food delivery actually involve? How do you get all the vital information as to when, what and where to the food shall be delivered, including the handover administration?

Jean-Louis: We get key delivery information on the shared online platform of Food Saving: when, where and how many portions of food need to be picked up. The delivery volunteers may see this and whoever commits first picks up the food. We decide ourselves which homeless shelter we take the food to. I have got 4-5 addresses in mind where I drop by on a regular basis as there is always tremendous need for food. Once delivery is done, I let the group know on the shared platform how many portions and to where I delivered, and share photos on the actual handover.

Milyen háttérfaladatok vannak ebben a projektben? Most már hárman is dolgoztok a koordináción, mire kell figyelni, hogy gördülékenyen menjenek a dolgok?

Tell us more about the back office responsibilites of the project. Three of you are responsible for coordination: what does it take to run things smoothly?

Bea: Judit and Dóri, the actual leaders of the project do the great bulk of the work. I am honored to be able to assist them as part of the coordination team. The back office tasks I have been taking care of are very similar to those I had done before for more than 15 years: I was in charge of finding and securing shooting locations for movies, in constant communication with crew members. Likewise, my responsibilities in the project involve round-the-clock communication with donors and delivery volunteers – I am in troubleshooting mode at all times. Last minute changes, such as there is more leftover food than the donors expected and it does not fit into the volunteers’ cars, do occur. These situations require you to think on your feet and challenge your creativity: it would be very frustrating not being able to pick up a donation due to coordination glitches. Fortunately this has not occured yet.

Does delivery always go as expected?

Bea: There have been no major surprises when it comes to delivery. Yet seeing how enthusiastic my son was to take part and help in the whole delivery process was a brand new and awe-inspiring experience. I would have loved to have a few words with those who got the donations but I think it is better just to step back and stay humble: I am happy to take good care of the delivery and glad to see that the food got to those who needed it the most.

Jean-Louis: In my experience, donors are happy to give the excess food to those in need and it also makes the shelter residents’ day. Cannot get better than this.

What inspires and keeps you going as a volunteer?

Jean-Louis: My greatest drive is to help others in need. Yet the +1 sandwich project in the school also has an educational mission. We have middle-class students for whom poverty and marginalized communities, such as homelessness, is unknown. I have been working on an initiative to cook and serve food with a few volunteer students and parents in a day shelter. I already have a smaller partner organization in mind that has experience in such projects and warmly welcomed our idea.

Bea: Wasting food makes no sense at all – that is my primary motivation. Picture this: while there is a ton of food left at an fancy feast somewhere in Budapest, many in need gather at a homeless shelter that night, near the venue, with nothing to eat. Although there is only a few kilometers between them, the leftover food never reaches those suffering from hunger: it is discarded into the trash bin. This is exactly what the Food Saving project has been created for: with responsible donors, this would less likely happen again.

Photo by: István Juhász

For many years now twice a week Noémi Poós is spending her evenings with the Vitamin Commando team, be it summer or winter, rain or shine. She is the project’s leader, one of our most reliable and most important volunteers. We have asked her how it all started and how it feels to work with the Commando twice a week. We also reveal whether it is possible to volunteer at Bike Maffia without a bike.

Noémi, it is fair to say that as project manager for the Vitamin Commando you are an almost indispensable member of the Budapest Bike Maffia staff. How did you come across this project, and what exactly are you doing, how does the Vitamin Commando work?

I have been keeping an eye on the work of BBM through social networking sites for some time. I have always had the desire to help those in need in some way, but like many others: I couldn’t really do, wouldn’t really dare to do it alone. Then finally in October 2015, I have grabbed two blankets and went to my first Vitamin Commando event. I didn’t know anyone there but the community was very inclusive, so I have become addicted pretty quickly. After about a year and a half of regular participation in the Commando events, i  happened to take on the organization of the project itself and i have stuck around, participatig nearly all of the events for more than four years now. Vitamin Commando is one of the most spectacular, most visible projects of Bike Maffia. It provides immediate assistance to people in need and it is the project where the most volunteers can join our work. We meet twice a week at our current base, prepare about 150-200 sandwiches which are then immediately distributed by our bikers to people on the street, to night selters and to warming shelters as well. My task is to coordinate the volunteers during sandwich making and delivery, to manage the procurement of raw materials and coordinate the use of the donations we have received.

We often say that the Vitamin Commando is the oldest project of Budapest Bike Mafia, since a similar initiative was what brought BBM to life, it was the ‘seed’ of our association. At that time it was a spontaneous thing, but Vitamin Commando then grew into a regular, well organized project. How is the team, what kind of people attend these events?

Bike Maffia has started out eight years ago with a Christmas food distribution, and grew into what they are today. The Vitamin Commando itself had its  “official” launch 5 years ago, first as a once a week thing, with a fairly regular core team. As their news spread, more and more volunteers has joined, and we have switched to a twice a week schedule. This has been working out nicely ever since, in the last four years we had maybe two events that were cancelled? We get together come rain or shine, even on natinal holidays. The team is very diverse, as the willingness to help is not tied to age, gender, occupation or nationality. There is a “core” cyclist team which is mostly composed of young guys, but to prepare the sandwiches we get older people, even some kids too who participate. The team is different each and every time. Some people come weekly, some about once a month. We have foreign students who are studying in Hungary and tourists who are just visiting for a few days.

What makes Vitamin Kommando important to you personally? What kind of experiences does it bring you?

It is safe to say that it has completely changed my life. I have joined BBM at a time of my life when i have not been feeling too good about myself. I felt stuck in the mundane routines of day-to-day life – basically just going to work – and i had no desire to leave my home otherwise. At that time, I was not even cycling in the city, afraid of the heavy traffic. So in the beginning I was just participating in sandwich making. Then I got to know the guys better and I have felt a growing urge to go with them to help distribute the food as well. Took me about half a year to go on my first ‘commando mission’ on my bike. It gave me great sense of security that we were moving as a team on our way downtown, I have learned a lot about traffic, about different routes. After about another half a year I have noticed that I am now cycling everywhere. New friendships have formed, even my weekends have started to include cycling trips – and they have been ever since. There is also the feeling that I am doing something good for others, that another afternoon have passed doing something that is actually useful – and there is an almost immediate feedback confirming this. One of the best feelings while doing food distribution is giving someone a sandwich down by an underpass and by the time I am coming back, I can see them snacking away. My opinion about homeless people has changed a lot too. We are talking to them a lot, and we get to hear a lot of different stories. Visiting a homeless shelter is also a formative experience.

An important question that we often receive: do you need to have a bike, must you know how to ride a bike if you want to join?

No, you do not need a bike! Anyone can join to just prepare sandwiches, and we also always ask our “pedestrians” if they know or have seen any homeless people to whom they wish to take some food on their way home. For their first time, we also help newcomers who may have difficulty in addressing homeless people, who do not know what to say to them. We love to talk to new volunteers about our experiences if they require it. We are trying to expel the stereotypes about homeless people, but it is best for the newcomers to experience such situations personally.

Photo by: István Juhász

The activities and projects of Budapest Bike Maffia are realised by the enthusiastic and steadfast efforts of our volunteers. To help you to get to know them better, each month some of them will introduce themselves to you in short interviews and tell a few stories about their volunteering experiences.

Budapest Bike Maffia has launched its photo competition for homeless people for the fourth time this year. A professional jury has selected the 50 photos that were exhibited at Madách Square in September. The top 13 pieces selected by the audience will be made into calendars, postcards and notebooks. The full proceeds from their sale will be given to the creators, the homeless artists.

We have asked the two women who are the very foundation of the MyBudapest Photo Project – Bernadette Fekete and Hajni Merc – about their work and about volunteering.

What are your roles in the project, how and when did you join this program and Budapest Bike Maffia?

Bernadett Fekete: I have met Budapest Bike Maffia in 2015. First I’ve attended one of their Saturday cooking sessions, then I have joined the Vitamin Commando Team a few times, then i just…”got stuck” with them. 🙂 In the spring of 2016, I’ve read an article about the Café Art team in London who were handing out cameras to homeless people and who then used those photos to bring attention to the issue of homelessness. Although the initiative was a bit different from Bike Maffia’s projects so far, it was getting all the team’s support from the beginning. From the very start we have been getting nothing but positive feedback from everyone; volunteers, creators and our partners have all been enthusiastic supporters of the photo competition. This is how I met Hajni as well, she has helped me before with her great ideas about the sale of the calendar. As a Project Coordinator for four years now, I have been working on the MyBudapest Photo Project from its start to its finish, which runs from April to February of next year. The tasks are very diverse and so far each year has presented both new challenges and new opportunities as well.

The activities and projects of Budapest Bike Maffia are realized through the enthusiastic and tireless work of our volunteers. To help you get to know them better, they will introduce themselves in short interviews and tell a few stories about their volunteering experiences.

Orsi Tapasztó has joined Budapest Bike Maffia a year ago. After the summer break, at the start of September, she will resume work as coordinator of our +1XTRA program with a team of school lecturers.

Many are already familiar with the +1 sandwich school project of Budapest Bike Maffia. You volunteer to coordinate another branch of the school programs. What exactly is this program and what is your task within it?

About a year ago, a team of lecturers has come together to provide senzitizing training to students of different ages about homelessness, about turning towards each other, the work of BBM, and of course about the opportunities to join our work. 

My job is to coordinate this process, so the inquiries of schools come to me, I am the link between them and the lecturers and the one who has to make sure that everything runs smoothly so that schools and lecturers can focus on the important things.

You are still relatively new to Budapest Bike Maffia, but you have volunteered before. When did you join the team and what has attracted you to volunteering?

I have initially joined the team of Bike Maffia in the fall of 2018, and started getting more involved in the work from this spring. 

Volunteering has been a part of my life for a few years now, when something has clicked in my head that: okay, up till now I could look at things from afar but now i have to actually do something about what is happening around us – as an average citizen volunteering is the activity that enables you to do something right away. I’ve been keeping an eye on BBM’s diverse projects and activities, their continuous progress and Zoli and his team’s work for years and I’m happy to be able to participate in it now.

Did volunteering bring any change, any experience you didn’t expect that surprised you?

Volunteering toughens up a person when it comes to their relationship with homelessness. 

If you often have to deal with something that you’ve only been watching from afar, you learn to look more and more directly into the eyes of a beggar, and as you work, your initial panic and tension will be replaced by a desire to help.

I suspected that I would meet many kindly and helpful people while volunteering, but to be able to form genuine and honest friendships over the age of thirty has been a very pleasant result of this work.

Last but not least, volunteers may finds themselves in situations that bring out abilities unknown even to them. As a physicist, I would never have thought that I would be able to organize events, raise money, or write tenders for such a cause. Of course, this requires an organization that provides a supportive environment for the process.

+1XTRA

The program aims to sensitize young people, promote volunteering, and build a community of students, parents, and educators in our +1 Sandwich program that is able to think together about what we can do for ourselves and for others. The first step of this is an approximately 1.5 hour interactive lecture where we present the work of Budapest Bike Maffia and discuss prejudices through the topic of homelessness.

If you would like to invite our school sensitization lecturers to give a presentation, please contact Orsi!

eloadas@bikemaffia.com

Photo by: István Juhász

No matter it is a weekday or weekend, daytime or late night, or even a random hour: volunteers of the Food Saving Project (www.etelmentes.hu) are always eager to deliver donated (leftover) food to homeless shelters across Budapest. They do this with no compensation, in their free time, with their own car and at their own cost, just to make sure that edible leftovers land on plates of those in need, instead of the trashbin. The donors are mostly restaurants, event agencies or party planners: the minimum number of portions volunteers are able to pick up is at least 40-50. The results speak for themselves: the 30-member project team has saved close to 20,000 portions since the launch of the project.

We interviewed Jean-Louis Murris and Bea Beliczai about the Food Saving Project and volunteering. Bea first got involved as a delivery volunteer but she has been also active in the project’s coordination since last year, assisting the two projects leads.

What made you join the project? Where did you first hear about the initiative? What made you to choose this type of volunteering?

Bea: Food waste is a problem that I have found myself coming back to for a while yet I felt pretty much helpless. It is shocking to see how much food ends up in the trash bin day by day while hunger is still widespread. I thought the two endpoints would just need to be linked somehow yet obviously food waste is a complex issue. I was thrilled when I first read an article about the project: there is a group who actually works on rescueing food and getting it to those in need. I felt immensely empowered and has been an active member of the project team since November 2018.

Jean-Louis: It has been around 4 years since I first came across Budapest Bike Maffia online. First I got involved in the Vitamin Commando project: I found the idea of connecting biking and helping others ingenious. I got truly inspired and founded the ’+1 sandwich – students for those in need’ project within the Gustave Eiffel French Primary and Secondary School 3 years ago. I have been also active in the Food Saving Project for 2 years, helping deliver leftover catering food to homeless shelters.

What is your day job?

Bea: When I first applied I was a stay-at-home mom with my two and a half year old son. I believed it would absolutely make sense to get started in delivering food with him. I was right! What is more, my little one exceeded expectations in all means and was keen on helping me: he could not wait to carry boxes and push the teacart with me. Since he started the kindergarden, I have had more time to run my own projects (publishing books) and also had the chance to take on extra responsibilities at the Food Saving project.

Jean-Louis: I have been retired for 3 years so I could dedicate more time to serve charitable causes. In the last 14 years of my career, I worked in the leadership of the French secondary school; before that, I had been a language tutor at the French Institute.

How does food delivery actually involve? How do you get all the vital information as to when, what and where to the food shall be delivered, including the handover administration?

Jean-Louis: We get key delivery information on the shared online platform of Food Saving: when, where and how many portions of food need to be picked up. The delivery volunteers may see this and whoever commits first picks up the food. We decide ourselves which homeless shelter we take the food to. I have got 4-5 addresses in mind where I drop by on a regular basis as there is always tremendous need for food. Once delivery is done, I let the group know on the shared platform how many portions and to where I delivered, and share photos on the actual handover.

Milyen háttérfaladatok vannak ebben a projektben? Most már hárman is dolgoztok a koordináción, mire kell figyelni, hogy gördülékenyen menjenek a dolgok?

Tell us more about the back office responsibilites of the project. Three of you are responsible for coordination: what does it take to run things smoothly?

Bea: Judit and Dóri, the actual leaders of the project do the great bulk of the work. I am honored to be able to assist them as part of the coordination team. The back office tasks I have been taking care of are very similar to those I had done before for more than 15 years: I was in charge of finding and securing shooting locations for movies, in constant communication with crew members. Likewise, my responsibilities in the project involve round-the-clock communication with donors and delivery volunteers – I am in troubleshooting mode at all times. Last minute changes, such as there is more leftover food than the donors expected and it does not fit into the volunteers’ cars, do occur. These situations require you to think on your feet and challenge your creativity: it would be very frustrating not being able to pick up a donation due to coordination glitches. Fortunately this has not occured yet.

Does delivery always go as expected?

Bea: There have been no major surprises when it comes to delivery. Yet seeing how enthusiastic my son was to take part and help in the whole delivery process was a brand new and awe-inspiring experience. I would have loved to have a few words with those who got the donations but I think it is better just to step back and stay humble: I am happy to take good care of the delivery and glad to see that the food got to those who needed it the most.

Jean-Louis: In my experience, donors are happy to give the excess food to those in need and it also makes the shelter residents’ day. Cannot get better than this.

What inspires and keeps you going as a volunteer?

Jean-Louis: My greatest drive is to help others in need. Yet the +1 sandwich project in the school also has an educational mission. We have middle-class students for whom poverty and marginalized communities, such as homelessness, is unknown. I have been working on an initiative to cook and serve food with a few volunteer students and parents in a day shelter. I already have a smaller partner organization in mind that has experience in such projects and warmly welcomed our idea.

Bea: Wasting food makes no sense at all – that is my primary motivation. Picture this: while there is a ton of food left at an fancy feast somewhere in Budapest, many in need gather at a homeless shelter that night, near the venue, with nothing to eat. Although there is only a few kilometers between them, the leftover food never reaches those suffering from hunger: it is discarded into the trash bin. This is exactly what the Food Saving project has been created for: with responsible donors, this would less likely happen again.

Photo by: István Juhász