On Saturday 19 March, two trucks from the French Food Banks of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region left Bourg-en-Bresse to participate in the deployment of logistical and food aid to the borders of Ukraine for the refugee populations.
Saturday 19 March, 8 a.m.: François Delahaye, René Girard, Jean-Louis Vigneron and Pierre Razurel are checking their cargo on the loading dock of the Ain Food Bank in France. In response to a call from the Fédération Française des Banques Alimentaires, these four retired volunteers, HGV drivers, volunteered to transport 27 tonnes of basic necessities to Kielce (Poland): 42 pallets containing 1/3 canned vegetables, 1/3 ready meals and 1/3 hygiene products.
“During the whole of last week“, explains Michel Brisson, regional dispatcher, “around thirty volunteers had sorted and loaded the donations from the stocks of the region’s Food Banks for this operation“. Yesterday, at the end of a small ceremony, in the presence of Mrs. Sandrine CHAIX, Vice-President of the Regional Council, the drivers took their places behind the wheels of their 430 hp Renault Dwide, two 26-ton behemoths. Driven by the values of solidarity, these four musketeers covered the 1,700 km that separated them from Kielce in two stages.
After a break in Germany on Saturday evening, they reached their destination on Sunday evening, 20 March. The unloading took place on Monday morning in Kielce (in a logistic platform of the Polish Food Banks) and the drivers returned home on Tuesday evening.
