Food Bank: 4,700 Tons of Food for the Needy

In the first half of this year, the Hungarian Food Bank Association saved and donated 4.7 million kilograms of near-expiry and faulty packaging to people in need.

In a statement sent to MTI on Tuesday, the association said that since their formation in 2005, they have collected more than 100 million kilograms of surplus food from manufacturers and traders, so that "instead of landfills, they are better put on the tables of people in need." The food bank's work is not only helping people in need, it is also protecting nature from the environmental impact of waste by saving food, they added.

In the first half of 2023, 248,000 people in need received food parcels, which the Hungarian Food Bank Association put together from food that has become surplus, is no longer on the market but is still perfectly suitable for consumption. This is a 24% increase compared to the same period last year.

András Nagygyörgy, the association's external relations director, was quoted in the statement as saying that "while more and more people are queuing up for the saved food parcels due to the rising food prices, the surplus that can be taken from traders has started to decrease noticeably". Shops have become more cautious with their orders, with fewer products left over at the end of the day, and are more likely to consider giving leftovers to food rescue or stocking up at the last minute by selling them at a fraction of the original price. In these circumstances, it is even more remarkable that the food bank has been able to increase its donations by a quarter," he pointed out.

The association's volunteers visit 728 stores every day to collect the remaining baked goods, vegetables and fruit. Meanwhile, 68 producers and traders have offered large stocks of durable foodstuffs and fresh goods requiring refrigeration, which are distributed from the food bank's central warehouse. In the first half of the year, hundreds of thousands of dents in tinned vegetables and instant noodles with faulty labels were donated, but 24 tons of jam and 22 tons of mushrooms were also saved, while 90,200 chocolate chocolates were collected after the holidays.

They pointed out that more and more single-parent families are asking for help all over the country. “The association's regular food parcels provide security and predictability for these families, giving them a chance to get by," the statement said.