Every year, on the eve of the Christmas holidays, the Interact Club SMG implements the “Buy and Donate” project—an initiative that collects long-lasting food products at Lidl stores and directs them to people in need. This year’s format—spanning three weekends and three locations—led to an impressive result: 15 tons of donated food products.
However, this volume completely changed the scope of the project and presented the team with a series of serious logistical challenges, requiring quick, flexible, and unconventional solutions.
The first obstacle arose at the local level, as the available space in our partners’ warehouses proved insufficient. The solution? “Fitness weekends” for Rotaractors and Rotarians from Sofia-Balkan. Interactors, their parents, and friends all pitched in to move the products—out of breath but smiling, experiencing the true meaning of Rotary in action among the pallets and boxes.
The next challenge was the need for a transit warehouse. Here, the management of Carex Bulgaria played a key role by organizing the transfer of products from the initially planned small warehouse to a significantly larger one. Thanks to this decision, the campaign continued without delay or compromise.
However, the work was far from over. After two intense weekends during which Nikola, Lily, and the entire SMG group sorted the products into “Buy and Donate” kits (bags), it became clear that more than 30 pallets were ready for shipment to Vidin. The originally planned transport proved completely insufficient.
A few phone calls later, the solution arrived: Lyudmil Ivanov, President of the Rotary Club Vidin, secured a large truck and a warehouse in Vidin, which would serve as the hub for distributing the donations. And when even the semi-truck wasn’t enough, “Bate Vencho” came to the rescue, with his van taking the final three pallets.
We also extend our special thanks to the team at the Carex Bulgaria warehouse, who tirelessly assisted in loading the ready pallets and were an indispensable part of the project’s logistical success.
Looking thoughtfully at the fully loaded semi-truck, Rotaract Club Sofia-Balkan President Fifo Todorov recalled: “The first time we did this, everything fit into one large Land Rover and the trunk of a passenger car. I will never forget how we got the jeep stuck in a ditch, and a lonely old woman was delighted by the commotion and the excited young people around her.”
Ten years later, we are once again using two vehicles—but this time it’s a semi-truck and a cargo van. The scale is different, and the challenges are greater, but the spirit remains the same: when we are together, kindness always finds a way.
