Food bank, +30 percent of requests for help but with the high cost of living there are fewer donations
The high cost of living is having a double devastating effect on inequalities a Rome is in the Lazio. If, on the one hand, the range of needy people who turn to third sector bodies and associations for food aid is growing considerably – in the summer alone the growth recorded is 30 per cent – on the other hand, cost increases of energy are causing a contraction of donations of food and a characteristic of surpluses. This is the alarm raised by the president of Lazio Food Bank, Giuliano Visconti, interviewed by “Agenzia Nova”. “During the long wave of the summer months up to September, there was a strong request from the associations affiliated with us for economic support for high bills. To this was added in the last month and a half an increase in the demand for aid due to the cost of living. The recorded increase is around 20-30 percent”, explains Visconti.
Currently, the Lazio Food Bank has “450 affiliated associations throughout the region, which reach around 108,000 people in a state of poverty. We receive affiliation requests throughout the year, between two and three a week, but we are unable to respond to all of them – the president clarifies -. We keep two windows open a year for affiliation applications”. And the delays in the approval of the affiliation are partly determined by organizational issues, partly depending on a contraction of offers and donations. “In recent months there has been a contraction in the supply of food – explains Visconti -. If before the food industry produced at 12 months, now it does so with a maximum six-month perspective. Precisely to optimize production and avoid the long wave of expensive bills, companies try to reduce production. This translates into less food surplus. Since the beginning of the summer we have recorded a decrease in food donations, due to the high bills which has led to reduced production times in the food industry, with an increase in quantity in the short term, against a smaller surplus. The industry has been more virtuous in production, with less food surplus, but this translates into fewer surplus donations to associations”.
However, there is a positive aspect, already noted during the pandemic period: the number of people who voluntarily offer their time to help those who find themselves in a condition of economic and social disadvantage is increasing. Only the Lazio food bank recorded an increase of about one hundred units between January and November. “Volunteering in Italy wakes up in times of crisis, this is the beauty of our country. At our facilities in Rome and Aprilia, the two department stores in Lazio – says Visconti – we have received numerous requests to join the volunteer program. There are several people who have made their time available, and this demonstrates the vitality of the world of volunteering. We have fluctuating data, because there are people who are available once a week, or on several days. We have about 40 people involved in the Rome warehouse and about twenty in Aprilia. From January to November we had an increase of a number of units”, concludes Visconti.
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