In Saturday’s Autumn Food Collection, which took place in more than 2,000 domestic stores, Czechs donated 624 tons of goods to people in need, including 562 tons of food and 62 tons of basic drugstore and hygiene items. The goods were picked by more than 5,000 volunteers, the charity said on its Facebook page after the end of the event.
Up to 1.12 million portions of food can be prepared from the selected foods, Miroslav Dinga, representative of the Trade and Tourism Association of the Czech Republic, told ČTK. At the same time, the collection continues in e-shops until November 21, so it is expected that 700 tons of donated goods will be exceeded.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/sbirkapotravin2023
This year’s collection was a record.
This year, people could hand over their goods to volunteers in green aprons in all chain stores or in the Rossmann, dm drogerie markt and Teta drugstore networks. The event was also attended by the online supermarkets Rohlík and Košík and the e-shops of the Tesco and Billa chains, which prepared electronic vouchers or various assistance packages.
According to the chairman of the Czech Federation of Food Banks, Aleš Slavíček, the Czechs have shown that they are not indifferent to the fate of others who find themselves in a difficult life situation. In the end, over 5,000 volunteers took part.
In brick-and-mortar stores, people could buy and then donate basic non-perishable food items such as flour, sugar, pasta, rice, pulses, oil, non-perishable milk, snacks for children, canned meat and other canned goods, instant soups and drugstore products such as shampoos, soaps, children’s diapers, pads, toilet paper, toothbrushes or toothpaste. The donated goods will now be transported to food bank warehouses, from where they will then be distributed through individual charitable organizations and cities and towns to all those in need.
Food collection is one of the largest material charity events in the Czech Republic, and thousands of people from among volunteers, store employees and non-profit organizations are involved in it across the country.
In previous collections, 4,659 tons of food, or about 9.32 million portions of food, and 595 tons of basic hygiene items have been collected so far. The operation of food banks is financially supported by the Ministry of Agriculture. Minister of Agriculture Marek Výborný, as part of the promotion of the collection and “good intentions and solidarity”, took a picture with volunteers and posted the photo on the X platform (formerly Twitter), similar to, for example, ANO chairman Andrej Babiš, deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Olga Richterová or president of the Trade and Tourism Association Tomáš Prouza.
