OREANDA-NEWS. May 25, 2010. In Vilnius, the Food Bank, a charitable organisation, will start distributing food under the Programme to Provide Intervention Food to the Poor. For the first time, the Food Bank is being assisted by other parties at its network of distribution points: volunteers from City Service will help the fund to distribute the food.

Plans are that 28,700 poor residents of Vilnius will receive support by 27 May. Fifteen Food Bank distribution points will operate in the capital.

‘We have been supporting the Food Bank for a year now: we have helped it to expand its network of distribution points and organise product transportation. An increasing number of our employees are getting directly involved in the charitable campaigns. In the past, our employees helped the organisation deliver the support to the homes of the poor, and as many as fifty volunteers took part in the food collection campaign that recently took place at shopping centres. The employees who engaged in the charitable campaign said that they were surprised at the kindness of the people who brought the food and moved by the thankfulness of those who received it. It is not surprising then that, as soon as another chance appeared, the employees of the company were eager to contribute to this mission of kindness and sympathy’, Alvydas Sabalys, head of City Service Vilnius Region, said.

According to Deimante Zhebrauskaite, director of the Food Bank, the number of people receiving support is constantly increasing both in Vilnius and all over Lithuania and therefore volunteer help distributing the support is much appreciated. ‘One year ago, we helped 200 poor per day, and today this number has increased to 1,000. This is why one person per distribution point is not enough; there have to be at least four’, Ms Zhebrauskaite said.

The food package weighing approximately 7 kilograms per person comprises flour, flour mixes, pasta, biscuits, three-grain porridge, condensed milk, rice, and sugar.

Food support is provided to people whose income per family member does not exceed 1.5 times the state-supported income. Families or single persons who would like to receive support from the Food Bank should submit an application to the social workers in their ward.

According to Ms Zhebrauskaite, the EU food support programme will be implemented not only in Vilnius. In May, support via the Food Bank will reach 12,200 residents of Panevezhys and 3,500 residents of Klaipлda. It is expected that a total of 44,400 poor will receive support in Lithuania: over 230,000 kilograms of food will be distributed to them.

Food under the Programme to Provide Intervention Food to the Poor is distributed by Lithuanian Caritas, the Lithuanian Red Cross Society, and the Food Bank. The distribution of support under the programme and from European intervention funds is supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Lithuania.

The Food Bank operates all over Lithuania as an intermediary between food manufacturers, traders, and non-governmental charitable organisations, via which food reaches those in need. This principle of charity, which is common in all of Europe and the U.S.A., helps use foodstuffs more effectively and fight poverty.