The Food Bank of Alpes Maritimes provides a mid-year update on the needs for food assistance, its collections from supermarkets, and its distribution efforts.
The need for food continues to grow: more and more people are in difficulty; new associations are forming and joining the Food Bank to help them and are requesting more and more goods to meet needs.
At the same time, aid from Europe and the State, although roughly maintained in value, is slow to arrive following significant organizational changes that occurred at the beginning of the year and will not be available until mid-September.
The Food Bank of Alpes Maritimes managed to organize itself to face this situation that could have turned catastrophic:
Thanks to private and public partners, the Food Bank was able to acquire a new vehicle to increase its collection capacity (a truck was even rented for a few months while waiting for the ordered one to arrive).
The number of stores where collection is performed has more than doubled in a few months, going from 14 to 32.
Even if these new stores (Monoprix, Super U, Grand Frais, …) are smaller than hypermarkets, they allow for the recovery of products of excellent quality in quantity: by the end of June, 373 tons of food, 30% more than in 2012 (the best year) at the same period.
With the help of Lions and Rotary Clubs, the Spring Collections brought in 73 tons of food, 5% more than the previous year.
Thanks to meticulous management, we always manage our waste which remains stable at 11 tons despite the significant increase in perishable fresh products.
All these efforts allow us to meet the demand, as by mid-year the Partner Associations received 742 tons of goods, 7% more than last year at the same time.
In 2014, based on the current trend, nearly 800 tons will be collected in supermarkets, and more than 1,500 tons (3 million meals) can be distributed.
