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Food banks face shortages due to delivery delay

20:44 21/10/2018

Food banks in Belgium are facing shortages of staples such as flour, rice, milk and oil because of problems with the public tender issued for the delivery of goods. While the problems seems to be most acute in Limburg, food banks around the country are running up against shortages.

According to Flanders News, food has not been delivered all year to food banks, which are now at the end of the supplies received in 2017. The problem appears to be a delay with the public bid issued by the federal government to gather and deliver the food purchased.

The money for food bank supplies comes from the European Union and is delivered to member states. Belgium receives €88 million a year, which it uses to purchase food and get it delivered to the food banks.

A delay in the public tender required to issue a contract to an organisation to get the food to the dozens of food banks around the country saw a delay this year, so supplies earmarked for 2018 have not yet been delivered.

“We are now at the end of the supplies we received in 2017, and we have not received any goods that we ordered for 2018,” Guido Vandebrouck of the Sint-Vincentius food bank in Genk told VRT. “Our shelves are empty.”

Genk gives out about 5,000 food packets a year. Vandebrouck (pictured) said that they were able to buy some staples such as milk and pasta with their budget but that it wouldn’t last long. “We can also pick up fresh produce from warehouses and instigate some collecting campaigns,” he said.

According to the federal government, supplies will arrive in the first half of 2019. But the food banks still have to get through the winter.

Although individual donations of food are not accepted by food banks for safety reasons, the public can donate money directly to the central food bank agency or to food banks in their own communities. Private donations allow food banks to supplement their own supplies until food arrives through the normal means. Food bank workers are volunteers.

Photo courtesy VRT

Written by Flanders Today