Many Finnish localities run out of EU food bags quickly

Increasing numbers of needy people across Finland have been queueing up for free food provided under a European Union programme.
     
Last year EU food aid was taken by a total of 350,000 underprivileged people in Finland. The most recent statistics have not been completed yet, but reports from various parts of the country indicate that the food queues are growing longer.
      Reasons for the increased need of food aid include rising unemployment, illnesses, excessive debt, single parenting, or small pensions. Higher food prices have also contributed to the number of people standing in bread-lines.
      At the same time, new groups people have appeared in queues. For example in North Karelia, free food is being collected by young men who have returned to their home district after having been made redundant in the south. Others have shown up for a bag of foodstuffs after a break of several years.
     
A growing trend appears to be the phenomenon of the poor and homeless being replaced by members of the middle class, says Ulla Pesola, secretary of Kirkkopalvelut, an organisation run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, which delivers food and provides meals for underprivileged people.
     Apart from the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare as well as various associations of unemployed people, Kirkkopalvelut - in practice the local congregations - are the most significant distributors of food aid in Finland.
     
Most people collect their food bags from the welfare desks of the congregations, but in some 30 parishes food has been delivered to homes.
     In the City of Tampere, a mobile shop with volunteers distributes food to the aged and the disabled as well as to areas with poor transport services.
     In large cities, food is also donated by retailers and manufacturers, while in smaller localities the EU aid is the only recourse.
     
EU food aid is distributed every spring and autumn. Many localities ran out of food bags already around Christmas, which means that people have been forced to manage in some other way.
     In Luumäki in South Karelia the distribution system is being reorganised. The aim is to concentrate all of the aid on the autumn, in order that people could manage through the winter.
     
Puumala in South Savo ran out of EU stocks already at the beginning of the year. Welfare worker Riitta Sjöblom says that this happened the first time during the four years she has been involved in the distribution.
     ”It is difficult to estimate the need of food aid, as no foodstuffs should be left over nor are we allowed to distribute any food after the sell-by date”, Sjöblom reports.
     Sjöblom notes that some single young men will not take flour as they do not know what to do with it, while mothers of families know how to make pancakes and rolls, for instance.

More on this subject:
 FACTFILE: Staple commodities to the underprivileged

Previously in HS International Edition:
  Helsinki breadline offers Mayor Pajunen food for thought (27.2.2007)
  Rise in standard of living does not shorten bread-lines in Helsinki area (19.5.2006)
  Higher food prices bring longer breadlines (22.4.2008)

Links:
  Kirkkopalvelut (in Finnish)