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INPRIMATU
Demand for food aid doubles in Navarre with the coronavirus crisis
  • Social organizations and dining rooms serve over 35,000 people.
Euskalerria irratia @fm983irratia 2020ko maiatzaren 25
Paris 365 jaki-toki solidarioa (Argazkia: Ekinklik)

The coronavirus health and economic and social crisis has led social canteens to work for weeks to meet the food demand of thousands of families and, according to Diario de Noticias, the demand has increased by more than 50% in the confinement. In addition, the social partners expect that the number of unemployed in the area will continue to increase in the coming months.

Groups and associations such as the Food Bank, Caritas, Villa Javier, Paris 365 or the Red Cross have adapted their activities to the conditions of the pandemic to continue to provide this essential service to more than 35,000 people, many of them for the first time.

In the case of Paris 365, the number of people serving in the dining room has increased by more than 50% during the weeks of confinement, from 50 to 80 users. In addition, in the social dining room Villa Javier de Tudela the dining room has grown by about 50%, with more than 200 people, of which more than half are minors. In the same vein, the Food Bank has seen a change in its pre-crisis trend: care was less, but after confinement that has changed, and in these weeks there have been 2,000 people who have asked for help. On the other hand, Caritas has remained "stable", although it has been detected that most of the calls are directed to food, when they were for other services such as the first home or consumption.

In order to alleviate the effects of the crisis, the Government and the Red Cross have developed a food coverage programme for 12,748 persons, of whom 4,659 are minors who received catering scholarships during the school year. The Basic Social Services detected in the confinement that 2,689 families in Navarre -8,089 - were in a situation of economic vulnerability, so they have also been included in this program. This program is delivered to families with food and cards with money.