The president of Portugal’s Food Bank system has called on the Portuguese to be "even more generous" in the next food-collection campaign because Community aid has been suspended.
Last year, social welfare institutions benefited from food aid from the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived, which supported more than 400,000 Portuguese, but which was not distributed this year.
This year "the institutions have not had access to any food aid products” which last year were added to Food Bank items to help needy families, according to the president of the European Federation of Food Banks Against Hunger, Isabel Jonet.
Nowadays, partner institutions only receive food from the Food Bank and many of them organise food collections to make up the shortfall, said Jonet.
For this reason, "I appeal to all people to be even more generous," in the food gathering campaign that takes place next weekend, "because this is a year in which the contribution of each one of us is much needed."
Portugal’s 21 food banks currently support 2,700 partner institutions which in turn help 426,000 people through daily donations of food and home-made meals, also providing day centers and support for the homeless.
In addition to food, many institutions provide home support and help in home and personal hygiene, especially with the elderly and infirm.
"There is a great chain of solidarity here in which food is a factor in social integration and in the struggle against loneliness," stressed Jonet, noting that there are many elderly people living on their own and on very low incomes.
Asked if there was any change in the number of requests for assistance from the Food Bank, Isabel Jonet said that every day the Food Banks are confronted with people "knocking at the door."
"What we see with the institutions that operate every day at grass roots level is that there is no decrease in the number of requests for support and no decrease in the needs of those people supported," said the Food Bank president.
This year, the Food Bank Against Hunger celebrates 25 years and is holding its 50th food collection campaign on the first weekend of December, a date that Isabel Jonet hopes will see "more volunteers on the street who can sensitise those who go to Christmas shopping to the fact that there are people who need help getting the food they need on their table."
The European Commission states that:
"Portugal provides food and basic material assistance through its Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) operational programme. The programme aims to support the most deprived persons and households, including those who are homeless.
"Poverty and social exclusion are prevalent in Portugal, with poverty levels exacerbated by the struggling economy. In 2014, 25.7% of residents were suffering from material deprivation, a figure which had increased from the previous year.
"The operational programme in Portugal provides food products and basic necessities such hygiene products, clothing and footwear to the most deprived persons and households.
"Both the Social Security Institute and the partner organisations are responsible for food purchasing, while the distribution of food is under the responsibility of the partner organisations."
In Portugal the managing authority is Autoridade de Gestão do PO ISE http://www.poise.pt/
A source close to the operation in the Algarve commented that the 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 much for helping the poorest in society, a govenment claim that has failed to materialise.
