Food Bank aims to recruit some 27,500 volunteers

Catalonia’s Food Bank (Banc d’Aliments) is looking to recruit 27,500 volunteers around the country for its annual food collection campaign known as the “Gran Recapte”, which will take place on November 30 and December 1. The foundation that runs the bank is hoping to match last year’s successful campaign and will have 2,000 collection points, according to the Efe news agency.

“We will be happy to reach last year’s figures. We consider achieving the participation of 30,000 people to be a success,” said the head of the organisation, Lluís Fatjó-Vila, at yesterday’s presentation of the campaign. Fatjó-Vila also pointed out that the food bank distributes basic foodstuffs to some 202,025 people in Catalonia. Last year’s campaign collected 4,656 tonnes of food, which reached some 209,000 people. The types of food most sought after by the food bank are foodstuffs that can last a long time and that are high in nutrients, such as milk, oil, preserved vegetables and pulses.

The Food Bank works all year round, but the annual “Gran Recapte” campaign provides a boost to the supply of basic foodstuffs and guarantees their distribution for three months, according to Fatjó-Vila.

According to figures from 2016, some 13.2% of the population (990,318 people) are living in poverty, with 4.3% (320,816 people) living in extreme poverty.