“It’s good to know that there are still wishes that can come true” is the theme campaign, which is to run from this bank holiday Friday through to Sunday in more than 2,000 super- and hypermarkets across the country, the Banco Alimentar Contra a Fome said in a statement.
According to the organisation, the campaign is aimed at collecting food to distribute to 420,000 through 2,645 local charities and welfare institutions.
The Banco Alimentar is also receiving support from companies and other entities in the form of equipment and services such as transport, advertising, communication, insurance, security and food.
A study recently carried out by academics at Lisbon’s Catholic University found that the percentage of people receiving support by charities and other welfare organisations who had at “one time or another” skipped meals for a whole day had “significantly increased” from 2014 to 2016, rising from 18 percent to 26 percent.
Of the families surveyed, 67 percent from charities and welfare institutions have net monthly income of less than €500. Almost half of families included children and young people.
“It is very important for us not to forget that … there are still people who need help to eat, above all at a time like Christmas, where having the family gathering around a table is a wish that is up to us to make happen,” the statement quoted Isabel Jonet, president of the Portuguese federation of food banks, as saying.
“The Portuguese have shown enormous generosity and solidarity, with numerous contributions to all the victims,” she said.
Last year’s campaign saw almost 26 million kilos of food collected, an amount that, “although large, was not sufficient to help all those who need it,” the organisation stressed. It said that “a small contribution” such as a litre of milk, a packet of pasta or rice, a bottle of olive oil or a can of beans, tuna or sausages “make all the different to the institution and the almost half a million” people it supports.