On 21 September 2021 the Fédération Française des Banques Alimentaires (FFBA) invited the European Food Banks Federation for a virtual session dedicated to learning more about EU funding as a potential opportunity to sustain, strengthen, and reinforce the activity of Food Banks on the ground.
More than 65 Food Bank representatives from 65 French local Food Banks joined the meeting.
The learning session aimed to concretely reply to a request expressed by the French network of Food Banks. Indeed, the Presidents of the local Food Banks are eager to differentiate the sources of incomes and are looking for learning more about whether and how the EU could help to support the daily activity of Food Banks.
The first part of the meeting was devoted to an overview on EU funding and the different opportunities for NGOs, while the second part was dedicated to the donation cycle regarding donations from the private sector, from the first contact with a donor company to the end of the reporting process.
By identifying positive and possibly negative aspects, the aim of the session was to better understand the process in order to increase benefits and outcomes for the whole network.
“The Food Banks appreciated the intervention of the FEBA team for the quality of the information transmitted, the desire to make the complexity of the subject accessible to all and the answers to the questions. In addition, the recording of the session as well as the documentation shared, permitted to the Food Bankers who were unable to participate to have access to the entire intervention on demand” stated Sylvie Targa, from Fédération Française des Banques Alimentaires.
“One of the pillars of our activity consists in the exchange and sharing of knowledge: we were delighted to dialogue with our French members and to help them discover and learn more about the possibilities of EU funds.” said Angela Frigo, Secretary General at FEBA. “The use of EU funds may seem difficult and complex, but it certainly represents a real possibility for the development and sustainability of our activity. As FEBA we are at the disposal of our members to accompany them and exploit these possibilities together.”
