The Government of Spain distributes around 545,000 kilos of food to 41,000 disadvantaged people free of charge in Castilla y León

• This amount corresponds to the first phase of the program that accounts for 40 percent of the total that will be received in 2023. The second phase is distributed at the beginning of autumn • In Soria, 3,000 people will receive 33,000 kilos of food

May 4, 2023.- More than 41,000 people are going to benefit in Castilla y León from the food that the Government of Spain is distributing during these days in the nine provinces of the community within the 2023 program of food aid to the most disadvantaged people.

The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, accompanied by the subdelegate of the Government in Soria, Miguel Latorre, visited this morning the Food Bank of Soria where it receives part of the 32,706 kilos of various food products that arrive in this province and that will be distributed among 2,979 beneficiaries. The economic value of these foods amounts to 54,000 euros.

Figures in Castilla y León indicate that the community receives in the first phase of this 2023 program a total of 544,664 kilos of food that has an economic value of 905,603 euros and that will benefit the 41,118 people indicated above.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, through the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA), is responsible for launching the program in which 15 million kilos/liters of food will be distributed free of charge in the first phase nationwide.

This first phase of 2023 has involved the purchase of food through a public tender process valued at 88,571,420 euros (VAT not included), financed by the recovery and resilience fund REACT EU, which has been used to increase support for the European Fund for Disadvantaged People (FEAD).

The programme will be developed in two supply phases. In the first, which began in April and is currently being carried out, approximately 40 percent of the total amounts of the 2023 program will be distributed in Spain.

The products are distributed throughout the country through the Spanish Federation of Food Banks and the Red Cross. These two entities will distribute food to some 5,240 national delivery partner organizations participating in the program, so that the more than 1.26 million final beneficiaries can easily prepare a full meal for one person or for a family with multiple members, including babies.

The food purchased is basic, varied, nutritious, unperishable and easy to transport and store. The “food basket”, in the first phase, includes rice, cooked chickpeas, canned tuna, spaghetti and noodle type alimentary paste, fried tomato, biscuits, vegetable macedonia, soluble cocoa, childish fruit and chicken tarritos, among other things.

PHASES OF THE 2023 PLAN IN CASTILLA Y LEÓN

The 2023 Program in Castilla y León is developed in the same way as at the national level: in two phases. The first, distributes the food to the delivery entities during this month of May. The second phase is expected to begin at the dawn of autumn.

Currently, in this first phase, food is in the distribution period in the CAD (Storage and Distribution Centers) of the Spanish Red Cross and the Food Bank. During these days it will begin its delivery to the delivery entities, which will send them to the final beneficiaries: individuals, families, households or groups that are in a situation of economic poverty, as well as homeless people and other people in a situation of special social vulnerability.

In Castilla y León, the Spanish Federation of Food Banks and the Spanish Red Cross, through its 19 storage and distribution centers, will distribute the food they receive from the FEGA to the associated distribution organizations (OAR). The 41,118 people in need in this autonomous community, who are in a situation of social or economic dependence, account for 3.24 percent of the total beneficiaries nationwide.

Taking into account that the amounts that are now distributed are 40 percent of the total of the program for 2023, when the rest arrives at the beginning of the autumn, Castilla y León will have received this year 1,362,000 kilos/liters of food whose value will exceed 2.26 million euros.

And in Soria a total of 81,800 kilos/liters of food will be distributed in 2023 for a value of more than 135,000 euros.

The Ministry of Agriculture, through the EAGGF, buys the food through a public tender procedure. Two of the companies that supply food to the program are located in Castilla y León. Specifically Galletas Gullón, from Aguilar de Campoo, in Palencia, and Legumbres Penelas, from Villarejo del Órbigo, in León, which provides cooked chickpeas.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE PLAN

The food aid programme for the most disadvantaged people in the EU originated in the late 1980s, as a result of the cold waves that hit Europe in 1986 and 1987. They mainly affected the most disadvantaged population and those with fewer resources. The European Commission therefore decided to use the products stored in the intervention agencies of the Member States to transform them into food for the most disadvantaged sections of society.

In Spain, the Ministry of Agriculture, through the Spanish Agricultural Guarantee Fund (FEGA), has implemented food aid plans since 1987 without interruption. Until 2013, these plans have been funded 100% by funds from the European Union's common agricultural policy.

Since 2015, the Food Aid Programme is already part of a new EU financial framework (2014-2020 period) and is financed from a new instrument, the European Fund for the Most Deprived (FEAD), within the EU's social and cohesion policy.

The objective of this fund is to promote social cohesion, strengthen social inclusion and therefore contribute to achieving the objective of eradicating poverty in the Union, which aims to achieve the objective of reducing by less than 20 million the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion, in accordance with the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The FEAD will contribute to the specific objective of alleviating the worst forms of poverty by providing non-financial assistance to the most disadvantaged people in the form of food and/or basic material assistance and social inclusion activities for the most disadvantaged people.

The European Commission in December 2014 approved the Spanish Operational Programme on food aid for the application of aid from the European Aid Fund for the Most Disadvantaged People (FEAD) for the period 2014-2020. Due to the consequences derived from the COVID-19 pandemic, this program continues in 2023.