Corona crisis has brought challenges for Voedselbanken Nederland, the Dutch association of Food Banks, which is run exclusively by volunteers. 12,000 of volunteers are helping in the Food Banks of the country and most of them are elderly people.
“An important part of our volunteer force is over 70 years old. At some locations as much as 50% of our volunteers were no longer able to work in a way that guaranteed their safety according to our own guidelines.” says Tom Hillemans, Vice-president of Voedselbanken Nederland.
Keeping an organization like this running when we know that the virus has a big impact on the elderly was a challenge that the organization managed to handle in order to keep feeding people in need.
From January to May, the 171 Food Banks in the Netherlands saw an increase in clients of 5%. And they are preparing for a 20 to 30% increase in the next weeks and months.
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