Over the course of the last few months, the Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome (BACF), the national foodbank charity, has seen the call on its service increase dramatically in the Algarve, from 16,000 requests for assistance to more than 24,000. Understandably this has caused a huge strain on their resources, made worse by the fact that at their first food collection in May, they were unable to have volunteers in the supermarkets asking for food donations from shoppers, which created a massive shortfall in their supplies.
afpop, Portugal’s largest Association created to assist foreign Residents and Property Owners in all manner of matters pertaining to living in Portugal, this week delivered 11 pallets of non-perishable foods to the BACF Portimão warehouse, for distribution to more than 122 groups across the region who will then disseminate the foods to the needy in their area. The delivery of pastas, pulses and rice was provided from the Association’s special project fund, agreed by the Association’s councils and presented by the outgoing council president, Chris Ireland and the new president Paul Streeter.
Chris Ireland explains, “Whilst afpop as an organisation does not usually support individual charities, we felt that that in these extremely difficult times we wanted to do something to assist those who are struggling to make ends meet. I asked my colleagues on the councils to consider using funds from our BLiP surplus ‘Project Fund’, and we agreed on the amount of €7,000.”
Paul Streeter continues, “We heard about the dire situation with the food bank when our CEO reported a discussion that he had with BACF president Nuno Alves, about the enormous increase in demand over recent months and we felt that this was an opportunity for us to use our BLiP project fund resources, in a way that would have a genuine impact and go directly to those who urgently need support.”
The foodstuffs purchased from Continente supermarket were received by the president of BACF Algarve, Nuno Alves in their Portimão warehouse. “These supplies have come just in time for our August delivery and will provide much needed help to Portuguese families in the region. We thank afpop sincerely for their generosity and support for our work.”
As a result of the contribution from afpop, the supermarket made an additional contribution from their charitable arm ‘Missão Continente”, with non-perishable foods to the value of 10% of the afpop contribution.
