On the occasion of the FEAD Community Annual Conference 2021 taking place on 19 October 2021, FEBA released its FEAD and the European Foodbanks Federation – 2020 Implementation Report to present some insights concerning the implementation of the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) on the ground.
Based on information provided by 11 FEBA Members benefiting from the Fund in Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain, the report assesses the quantitative and qualitative impact of the FEAD in 2020, focusing on challenges and opportunities.
As a selection of key findings, the report highlights that
- over 90% of the respondents benefited from foodstuff, 33% from hygiene products, and 17% received technical assistance or were able to improve the capacities of Partner Organisations
- 58% of the responding FEBA Members undertook accompanying measures
- the 11 FEBA Members benefiting from FEAD redistributed 162,466 tonnes of food, which equals to 19% of the total amount of food redistributed by the entire FEBA network in 2020 (860,000 tonnes), to 24,912 local Partner Organisations which supported and provided food aid to more than 7 million deprived people
The majority of the respondents evaluated the quality, quantity, variety, and nutritional value of the FEAD food as being excellent or good.
Amongst the most pressing challenges identified were storage and logistic issues, insufficient economic resources for administrative, transport, and storage activities, and the collection of data about the programme implementation. However, when asked for the main opportunities inherent to the FEAD, 67% of the respondents highlighted its complementary nature with the core activities of Food Banks, i.e. surplus food recovery and redistribution.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic rendered 2020 an exceptionally difficult year. 64% of the FEBA Members responding to the survey affirmed that the pandemic affected their daily activities in relation to FEAD. Among others, they mentioned difficulties concerning the delivery of goods to the warehouses of Partner Organisations, the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), or the redistribution of food packages to the end recipients.
Nonetheless, these challenges also opened up for new opportunities to become more resilient and efficient.
If you would like to read the whole report, the interactive online version can be accessed here.
