EU’s food aid distributed to 30,000 people in Malta
James Debono Some 30,000 Maltese persons have benefited from the European Union’s food aid, which distributes free cereals, rice, milk and sugar from other member states, over the past three years.
Replying to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Owen Bonnici, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said this year Malta was allocated 571 tonnes of sugar, €387,714 worth of milk, €80,964 worth of cereals and €34,250 worth of rice. Around 20,400 people – 5% of the population – were short-listed to benefit from the EU food aid scheme this year.
Persons eligible for food aid include those in residential care, people receiving social assistance and people unable to provide for themselves. They have to present a certificate from the Social Service Department to collect the foodstuffs from parish priests or from NGOs.
The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs is responsible for the overall management of the scheme. Two NGOs in Malta and Gozo are chosen every year to take care of the distribution of food stuffs. In Malta, the scheme is currently administered by the YMCA.
The goods are distributed once a month to 52 parishes and 50 NGOs, which in turn, hand over the food to those eligible. The goods are labelled to show they form part of the EU food aid scheme in order to ensure they are not sold.
The scheme was originally established in 1987, allowing member states to release public stocks of surplus food generated by the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy for use as food aid. Since then, the situation has changed.
According to the European Commission stocks are now at an all-time low, while the number of needy people has increased as food prices have recently risen sharply. The scheme was amended in the mid-1990s to make it possible to supplement intervention stocks with market purchases in certain circumstances.
In 2008 the Commission proposed to improve the current programme for the most deprived persons in the EU by increasing the budget to €500 million and extending the range of products which can be provided.
Member States are free to choose whether or not to participate in the programme.
Although the EU has, on average, among the highest living standards in the world, some people are unable to adequately feed themselves. An estimated 43 million people in the EU are at risk of food poverty, meaning that they cannot afford a meal with meat, chicken or fish every second day.
19 member states – namely Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Eire, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Finland – currently participate in the programme.
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