ZARAGOZA (2016 FIBA U17 World Championships for Men and Women) - The Zaragoza Food Bank has been helped by a number of teams who have volunteered to organise, catalogue and distribute their products as part of their experience at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championships for Men and Women.

Eight of the 32 teams participating have become volunteers and have worked a full morning at the Food Bank. The national women's teams from Spain, Brazil, China, Australia and France, as well as the men's teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Australia and France, have all visited Mercazaragoza where they toured the warehouse, discovered what the organisations function is and gave a valuable helping hand.

The FIBA U17 World Championships in Zaragoza and Utebo is aiming to do more away from the basketball courts in order to successfully raise awareness of social and community issues. The Zaragoza Food Bank has helped thousands of people benefit via five million kilos of food, thanks mainly due to the work of around 100 special volunteers.

The President of the project, Jose Ignacio Alfaro explained: "We are an Non-Governmental Organisation with no salaries and all our personnel is made up of volunteers who are either over the age of 65 or the long term unemployed. We are non-political and non-religious. We are people who dedicate time and often money to ensure this works."

The grateful recipients which are always non-profit organisations rather than individuals, are given products from large supermarkets, with traders at Mercazaragoza belonging to SAGF (Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund).

Wearing their volunteer badges, the girls from Spain and Brazil were present for the arrival of food which they themselves were responsible for checking, removing out of date products and categorising the boxes for their future distribution.

It demonstrated that not only does this generation of players have huge talent on the basketball court, it is also willing to show great commitment to social issues off the court.

"There are 35,000 people that we help in a province with a population of around 900,000," reiterated Alfaro. "It's clear there are a great deal of people with problems and for that reason, we are convinced that our work is a positive thing."

FIBA