Almost 330 tons of food have been saved and distributed by Food Banks across the Czech Republic over the last two weeks, when a state of emergency was declared. Their turnover in warehouses thus doubled compared to the normal situation. The food recoverd helped people in need in various social services and quarantine-closed cities. They mainly go to seniors and single parents.
“I am glad that our good cooperation with the Food Banks has proved successful even in this difficult time and we managed to save a significant amount of food. I want to reassure their operators that their actions have our support. We have been helping them since 2016 and we will continue to help them, of course, until a more appropriate system solution is found so that this help is not only at ministry level. Last year, for example, we supported Food Banks with more than 116 million crowns, which is almost 76 million more than in 2018” said Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Toman. He appreciated the work of Food Bank employees and volunteers who continue to work on these difficult days with great dedication.
The distribution of food in the current situation involves not only non-profit organizations, but also municipalities and rescue services in the regions.
“A significant amount of fruit and dairy foods were saved in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, which helped us coordinate the collection of 80 tons of food from closed schools. Another big help is donations of food from retail chains and also many food producers have heard from donations” said Aleš Slaví?ek, Chairman of the Czech Federation of Food Banks.
In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) launched a new subsidy program Supporting the Activities of Food Banks and Other Humanitarian Subjects. The aim is to help reduce food waste, prevent food waste, and at the same time to promote food distribution to people at the risk of material need who do not have access to food. Since the beginning of the support, the MoA has paid more than 209 million crowns to Food Banks.
