The new food collection campaign of the Food Bank Against Hunger (BA) starts today and runs over the weekend, at a time when requests for help have almost doubled compared to last year.
The campaign, which takes place in person in supermarkets across the country and has around 40,000 volunteers, has the theme ‘Hope’ to help families “face economic and social difficulties”, according to a statement from the Food Bank.
In addition to the face-to-face campaign over the weekend, the collection will continue until May 14 through vouchers available in supermarkets or on the online channel www.alimentestaideia.pt.
The 21 Food Banks, in partnership with around 2,600 institutions and entities operating in the field, daily distribute food to more than 400 thousand people in Portugal.
According to the president of BA, from the beginning of the year until April 20, the institution received 3,330 new requests for help, which represents an increase of 93% compared to the same period of 2022, when 1,725 requests had arrived.
Isabel Jonet warned that more than expectations, it is the real life of the Portuguese and “what they feel in their day-to-day life is that the money they earn is not enough for the needs of the household”, much at the expense of food and of housing.
“I think that in the coming months the situation will continue to deteriorate and what I foresee is that there will also be some reflection on the part of the companies that employ and I just hope that unemployment does not start to rise”, he pointed out.
Regarding the support that has been created for families, Isabel Jonet pointed out that they are often nothing more than an “oxygen balloon” and criticized that nothing is being done to combat structural poverty.
She said she was equally apprehensive about people who went through a situation of conjunctural poverty, that is, following the economic crisis, and who “will move into a situation of structural poverty”.
In view of these data, Isabel Jonet has no doubts that the number of poor people in Portugal will increase during 2023, regardless of all the social support given by the Government.