Food Bank, How You Can Help; Religious Bodies Can Use Model As Done Overseas

Recently, a great initiative was started by the Housing and Local Government Ministry together with the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission-food bank.

They partnered with major supermarkets around the country and set up drop off places where people could drop by food stuff which have since been delivered to those who have been worst hit due to job losses as a direct result of COVID-19. Dozens of families have been handed out food stuff and this front line model is on a fast track of becoming a success in Fiji.

Food banks are a norm in many countries around the world. The first one started in the United States of America in 1967 by St. Mary’s Food Bank. Since then thousands have been set up world over.

This model of assistance started in Europe much later, around 2006 after the European countries were hit hard by the global increase in food prices and the financial crisis of 2007-2008.

While people have the opportunity of helping out those who are currently disadvantaged by themselves, it is often advisable that this assistance be handed through an agency, in this case the FCCC and the Ministry.

Why? Because, these agencies are better placed to reach out to a wider group of people, often those who are left at the periphery and are not vocal about their problems.

Fiji is not the only country where people have had to turn to food banks for much needed food items.

Following the financial crisis of 2007–2008, and the lasting inflation in the price of food that began in late 2006, there had been a further increase in the number of individuals requesting help from American and Canadian food banks.

By 2012, according to Food Banks Canada, over 850,000 Canadians needed help from a food bank each month. For the United States,

Gleaners Indiana Food bank reported in 2012 that there were then 50 million Americans struggling with food insecurity (about one in six of the population), with the number of individuals seeking help from food banks having increased by 46 per cent since 2005.

According to a 2012 UCLA Centre for Health Policy Research study, there has been a 40 per cent increase in demand for Californian food banks since 2008, with married couples who both work sometimes requiring the aid of food banks. Dave Krepcho, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank in Orlando, has said that college-educated professional couples had begun to turn to food pantries.

In the United Kingdom, over 2000 food banks were recorded by 2017. In UK, the biggest food bank is run by a Christian charity group, the Trusell Trust.

This is another model our religious organisations can look at. Instead of tithe or donations to temples and other religious houses, if a food bank is set up at every church, temple, mosque, it would encourage more Fijians to donate a tin or two of food items.

Charities run by religious organisations are huge in other countries and food banks are one way religious bodies can seek donations and also use those items to help those in need right now.

They could either directly assist Fijians or hand over the gathered items to FCCC and the ministry for distribution.

In a developed nation like Germany,

1500,000 people used food banks once a week in 2014.

Charities run by religious organisations are huge in other countries and food banks are one way religious bodies can seek donations and also use those items to help those in need right now. They could either directly assist Fijians or hand over the gathered items to FCCC and the ministry for distribution.

France

In total, around 3.5 million people rely on food banks in France. One provider, the Banque Alimentaire has over 100 branches in France, serving 200 million meals a year to 1.85 million people.

Asia

Several Asian places have begun to use food banks; these include Nepal, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

India

Delhi Food Bank is an organization that feeds, empowers and transforms lives in the New Delhi– NCR Region.

Hong Kong

The first food bank in Hong Kong is Feeding Hong Kong. It was founded in 2009. Food Angel is also a food bank in Hong Kong.

Africa

The Egyptian Food Bank was established in Cairo in 2006, and less than ten years later, food banks run on similar principles spread to other Arab countries in North Africa and the Middle East.