Food bank || Despite the government’s almost constant declarations that life in Portugal is getting easier for its citizens, over 10,000 people in one district alone are reported to be waiting for food handouts.
It is “not an exponential increase”, says food aid organisation Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome but it is nonetheless “an increase”.
“Right now we have between 50 and 60 institutions representing around 10,000 people on our waiting list, just in Setúbal,” Banco Alimentar’s president António Alves told Lusa.
Meantime, the social effort is feeding over 30,000 locals – and the variety of foodstuffs has been bolstered as a result of the embargo ongoing against Russia.
Even so, Alves warns that poverty in Setúbal is rising. The only option is for Banco Alimentar to continue loading and unloading its pallets at the warehouse in Palmela, getting food aid to those that need it most.
As Lusa reports, the stream of traffic in and out of the warehouse is constant.
According to statistics, Setúbal consumes over €5 million worth of food aid per year – a sum that covers 4,000 tons of food.
