Promoting social inclusion, starting with the right to food.
We provide food assistance to the people we meet
while travelling and take action in emergency situations.
Food Assistance
The results
Beneficiaries
Meals served
Beneficiary nationalities
2015/
In progress
In collaboration with: Comunità di Sant’Egidio (Genoa and Catania), Ricibo (Italy), Banco Alimentare (Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland), Ricibo (Italy), Comunità san benedetto al Porto (Italy) Parroquia San German (Spain), Kirchengemeinde Eidelstedt (Germany).
THE CHALLENGE: hunger is on the rise even in rich countries
Defeating hunger is the second of the 17 goals of the 2030 Agenda, the programme for sustainable development signed by UN Member States; yet, 1 in 9 people worldwide do not have enough to eat.
Even in countries where food is plentiful for all, the number of people who do not have access to it is very high. Many are also affected by severe food insecurity, a condition that differs from malnutrition, according to the United Nations, in which a person stops eating for more than a day due to the lack of money or other resources.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, food poverty became a growing concern. Thus, the precariousness of food systems and the resulting increase in the number of people experiencing severe food insecurity call for urgent and large-scale action.
THE GOALS: overcoming the challenges of poverty and hunger
The Food Assistance project was launched in 2015 with the aim of supporting the Comunità Sant’Egidio in Genoa and promoting long-lasting changes in the lives of the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants. From Genoa, the project has since expanded and reached out to the communities we meet while travelling and those who face an emergency.
OUR PROJECT: combating waste, food assistance and the right to food
The project arose from the Costa Crociere Foundation’s commitment – with the aim of providing quality food for meal preparation at an advantageous price, constantly involving its partners and suppliers – and the foundation’s ability to take prompt action by partnering with leading third-sector organisations and associations.
The project started off in the city of Genoa by providing one hot meal a day to people in need, in addition to the daily street distribution of cold meals to homeless people.
The Food Assistance agenda also leverages the Human Resources department, which identifies, selects, and coordinates volunteers among Costa Crociere’s employees. Thus, every year we purchase basic goods and pack food parcels in Costa offices across Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland to be distributed to people in need. Using our special channels and platforms, Costa Crociere also partners with the media and social institutions to raise awareness and promote policies against food waste, poverty, and marginalisation.
Food poverty has increasingly become an emergency in the wake of the pandemic outbreak. We have therefore broadened our horizons and strengthened our commitment by launching the “The Most Beautiful Journey” programme to support communities in Civitavecchia, Bari, Palermo, Barcelona, Marseilles, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. With the introduction of an ad hoc operating procedure, “a cold chain”, which allows the associations lacking cold storage rooms to use our warehouse facilities and collect food according to their needs, we have also managed to quickly distribute unused food from our ships. This has made it possible to also donate meat and fish, high in protein, and which are crucial to the diets of the people in greatest need.
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