The annnual congress of the “Tafeln”, or “tables”, the equivalent of what is known in the USA and elsewhere as “food banks”, ended in Frankfurt on 16 June. Under the title “May everyone give what he can”, it was an occasion to draw up a balance sheet of the activity of the organization that over the past year has involved some 18,000 volunteers. The volunteers of the “Tafeln” withdraw leftover or surplus food, or food products past their sell-by date but otherwise qualitatively unimpaired, from supermarkets, food production centres and from private homes or institutions, and then distribute it to charity organizations. Each day, over 160 tons of food have been distributed free, or for a nominal price of 1 euro, to persons cared for by the social services, to the unemployed and to pensioners, to refugees, foreigners and the homeless, and to families with incufficient income. Like the Italian “food bank” initiative, the German experience is inspired by the St. Mary’s Food Bank, founded in the USA in 1969. The first German “Tafeln” were set up in 1993.
