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Vital 'Food Bank' collection this weekend as government support evaporates

shoppingbasketThe Algarve’s Food Bank volunteers aim to collect 150 tons of food donated from shoppers at 140 supermarkets across the Algarve this weekend, December 3rd and 4th.

The Food Bank has a depot in Portimão and Faro manned by volunteers from which the donated food is then distributed to 90 partner institutions for delivery to the region’s poorest citizens, most of them elderly and alone.

The partner supermarkets are to welcome between 1,800 and 2,000 volunteers this weekend who will be advising shoppers which additional products to purchase for the Food Bank, alongside their normal shopping.

The distribution to the partner institutions will be done in two stages: during next week all the fresh produce collected will be delivered as will any products nearing their sell-by dates. Storable canned and dried foods will be delivered during the next six months, the most needed being milk, olive oil and infant food.

Portugal’s Food Banks have been more reliant than ever on the generosity of the public as the government has failed to access EC support for this service that helps the country's poorest.

A source close to the operation in the Algarve commented that funding delay was down to bureaucracy and governmental lack of will.

“The new programme should have started in 2014, but the Portuguese government at the time could not implement it and opted provisionally to use €10 million of the €28 million annual budget.

“In 2015, the same thing happened again, and at the end of that year the government changed.

“The current government during 2016 was unable to implement the programme and nothing was distributed.

“According to what is known, tenders should be opened in the first quarter of 2017. If so, the aid should be available mid-year, almost two years after the last distribution.”
So, the Algarve is reliant on the good will of those who can increase their shopping this weekend and donate to the programme that so many rely on.

http://algarvedailynews.com/news/10492-portugal-s-food-banks-provide-essential-help-despite-zero-eu-aid-this-year

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