Prisoners from local jails have been growing food on a farm at Patacao, Faro for distribution to the region’s poor.
After a year-and-a-half of a protocol between Algar and the Algarve’s Food Bank Against Hunger, under the ‘Horta Solidária’ banner, both organisations have said the operation has been successful on a number of levels.
The company Algar, said the partnership started in March 2016 as a result of an agreement between the Portuguese Federation of Food Banks and the Ministry of Justice’s Prison Service.
The objective was to encourage inmates at Faro and Olhão’s prisons to doing something constructive, socially beneficial and good for the soul.
So far, around 20 offenders have been involved in growing crops on the farm near the Ministry of Agriculture’s office in Patacao.
Teams of prisoners, in groups of four, have been growing organically cultivated produce which then has been sent to the Food bank dêpot in Faro for distribution to the region's poor.
Algar has been able to test its Nutriverde® compound which is produced from the Algarve's green waste. This 100% natural, environmentally friendly product serves as an organic fertiliser or substrate suitable in organic farming.
Since March 2016, Algar has delivered 27 tons of Nutriverde® and over the first 18 months of the project, 12 tons of food has been produced and distributed throughout the Algarve, benefitting 18,000 people.
‘Horta Solidária’ has proved to be a success, not one prisoner has legged it, and boxes can be ticked for social integration, environmental protection and nutritional balance.
