Food distribution results in chaos in Hungary

Civilian groups distributed food to the poor in Miskolc, partly to defy Ákos Kriza, the city’s mayor from the nationally ruling Fidesz party, who refused the Child Nutrition Foundation’s similar initiative at Easter by saying that such an event would be politically offensive to the local government. The event turned into turmoil as the needy basically ransacked the food stands.

Indigent
citizens in the northeastern Hungarian city of Miskolc stormed stands with hundreds
of bags of long shelf life foodstuff waiting to be distributed by civilian
groups. Correspondents of the Hungarian news portal [origo] were of the view
that the lack of preparedness of the organizers and the impatience of the needy
both played a significant role in the turn of events.

The organizers’
plan to hand out tickets that people could exchange for a bag of food failed as
people did not want to stand in line for the tickets. Instead, many of them stormed
the stands and some people took more than one package or simply threw bags to
relatives standing further in the back.

In the end,
some 150 of the hungry people who gathered there for food, in fact, left
empty-handed. Earlier, the mayor of the city refused to allow food distribution
by saying that there is no need for such action in Miskolc.

At the same
time, the opposition Socialist Party called for the government to fight the
increasing poverty in Hungary and ensure, for example, that all needy children
are provided food all year long.