ESTEVE continues to promote solidarity initiatives to help alleviate the impact of the health crisis brought on by COVID-19. Most recently, it has collaborated with the NGOs Nutrició sense Fronteres and FESBAL. The company has donated 200 menus every day for 28 days, in other words, 5,600 menus in total. Nutrició sense Fronteres has distributed them among different entities and soup kitchens. In addition, ESTEVE workers have donated part of their salary to FESBAL, which has resulted in the company being able to donate more than 1,200 menus to this federation.

As a company, ESTEVE has always been committed to its immediate environment and has launched several solidarity initiatives during this pandemic. One of the first was its donation of fruit to different hospitals and on this occasion it wanted to take advantage of its alliance with Nutrició sense Fronteres, to oversee the nutrition of the most vulnerable members of our society. In the case of FESBAL, the pharmaceutical company has been collaborating with this entity for many years.

Homemade and nutritionally complete menus

The responsibility for preparing the menus for Nutrició sense Fronteres lies with ESTEVE's kitchen team. Ever since a state of alarm was declared in Spain and confinement began because of the COVID-19, the kitchens that served the company's employees remained closed but as a result of this collaboration they have reopened to respond to the needs of several social organisations in Barcelona and its metropolitan area.

The menus they prepare are all homemade, with local products (km 0) and of high nutritional value and quality. They include vegetables, rice and pasta, and also 20% of proteins. In addition, they include water and fruit and any allergens are marked on the labels that Nutrició sense Fronteres has given to ESTEVE. All of this is done in compliance with strict health protocols for personnel, food handling and the distribution of the dishes, which guarantee the quality and safety of the entire process, from the moment the ingredients arrive until the food is delivered to those families who need it most.

Nutrició sense Fronteres is currently collaborating with 28 social organisations such as CAS Lluís Companys, Àmbit Dona, Aldees Infantils, Fundació Roure or Casa Cadis.

In addition to this collaboration, ESTEVE's employees have donated part of their salary to the Spanish Federation of Food Banks. In total, this NGO will receive more than 1,200 menus to help people at risk of exclusion.

Other solidarity initiatives

One of ESTEVE's first concerns was the protection of health professionals. In this regard, it has donated personal protection equipment (PPE) for health professionals taking care of patients suffering from COVID-19 through the Ministry of Health, the Catalan Union of Hospitals and SEMERGEN, who have distributed them to several hospitals in Spain. To be more specific, the company has donated 400 protective suits, 1,200 protective gowns, 30,000 gloves, 2,000 masks, 1,600 shoe covers and 4 remote digital thermometers.

The company is also participating in 3 European projects aimed at identifying and/or repositioning drugs that are active against COVID-19; at detecting the SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus that has caused the COVID-19 pandemic); and at analysing the involvement of the sigma-1 receptor in the viral infection.