Poverty: Social canteens in Lisbon without exceptional demand maintain number of meals
The technical director of the Lumiar Youth and Elderly Support Center (CAJIL) said that the institution “has not felt any difference in terms of requests”, as happened, for example, during the pandemic, when “many requests” were registered in the canteen. Social
As the social canteens in Lisbon keep the number of meals distributed and still do not register an increase in the number of orders, although there is an increase in the number of orders compared to what could happen until the end of the year and in 2023.
The social canteen is a response aimed at supplying people and families in need, managed by institutions in the social sector or by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, and financed by the Social Security Institute.
In the city there are at least ten social songs, at least some of which are aimed at these specificities, and rounding Lisbon’s social responses makes it known that the impact of inflation or the increase in the cost of energy is felt by itself. institution, but it still hasn’t taken more people looking for a meal.
At the Anjos Refectory, Santa Casa serves around 250 lunches and close to 160 dinners a day.
Speaking to Lusa, the technician from the Lumiar Youth and Elderly Support Center (CAJIL) said that the institution “has not felt any difference in terms of requests”, as happened, for example, during the pandemic, they registered “many requests ” in the social canteen.
“Right now, I have kept the same households, in family terms, and there are no requests, so far, more requests. It cannot yet be in the situation in the requests regarding this situation that we are currently going through, at least for now”, said Ana Potes, noting that the situation will change soon.
The institution currently supports eight people, from two aggregates, which means 1 meal a day, with almost eight people due to its aggregate response capacity.
Institution.
The technical director of the height service can arrive at prices that will be delivered with the general services required to configure CAJIL services such as the call center, with the pre-finished conditions of day or the support does not have pre-finished conditions of day or height. the support they need because they can’t afford it”.
The Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa for the Social Action of the administrator also confirmed and said that the institution has not received requests for support at the level of the social canteen, which keeps the number of users more concerned than the numbers that worry him.
The expression, explained Sérgio Cintra, numbers and numbers and statistics even mean a small amount, as an example of the increase in people in the city of Lisbon who receive the number of social increases from Inser (RSI), who had a small ” and “is more or less less stable in the last seven or eight years.”
Knowledge of cases of division of bank or housing has been stated on the subject, but it has not been established that the increase in the value of rents in the city has had a problem in recent years that has brought many people to us.
“Although we don’t have a big increase in demand, I’m more concerned because I don’t know at a given moment where the people are. They live in their own city and I’m not aware of them. Those that are more public, then we continue with a level of support without distinction”, he referred to those that are more common in the city.
Even so, Sérgio Cintra said that a collective and continued effort to support the needy will be necessary, taking into account “economic factors” such as war, rising interest rates, as well as the problem of rents in housing.
“We all have to be prepared for this in the continued support of people and do this with sufficient consideration so as not to enter into a collective alarm movement”, he defended.
In the social solidarity institution “O Companheiro”, intended for the reception and insertion of inmates, ex-inmates of their families, the social canteen, community, accompanying 50 aggregates and usually serves between 100 and 120 meals a day.
According to José Brites, vice president and general director of the institution, which manages a single social canteen in the parish of Benfica, around 40 thousand meals were served in 2021, a number that will remain unchanged in 2022, since “until the no more requests for help.”
The official said that over the last ten years, since the social canteen opened its doors in January 2012, it has served more than half a million meals and that there is usually a “peak” in requests for help in the last quarter, more close to Christmas.
“People show more solidarity and as such, it is also possible for people to say that they are poorer because they have a different acceptance”, he said.
In this period, José Brites expects that period, similarly to what happened in the others, between 20% and 30% in the number of meals served.
However, there will be a year 2023 that is going to be very complicated.”
“We have no doubt about that”, he stressed.
Even so, José Brites believes that as the association works mainly with inmates and ex-prisoners, “only in extreme circumstances” will other people ask for help at the level of the social canteen.
According to the Social Charter for 2020, there were 11 social canteens in mainland Portugal that year, serving meals to 3,938 people, 58.3% of the total capacity, which was 6,756 users.
Social Security finances 2.5 euros per meal provided in the social canteens, including a main course, bread and fruit or dessert, a value that remains from food or dessert012.