Annual nationwide Food Bank campaign collects 140 million kilos

• Second annual Food Bank collection gets over 135 tons of donations in the Campo area
• 1700 Campo de Gibraltar volunteers helped exceed expectations

ALGECIRAS (Cádiz) The second edition of a national annual foodstuffs campaign was a resounding success this year. Held throughout the country over three days last weekend and organized at local levels by several different groups coordinated by the Banco De Alimentos Foundation, the total collected came to over 140 million kilos to be distributed among the needy. In the Campo de Gibraltar area alone there were some 30 collection points, principally at supermarkets where you were handed an empty plastic bag as you went in and asked to do the best you could.

Cáritas helps 2.513.563 people in Spain in 2013, a 32% increase

MADRID – Cáritas, the church charity that operates all over the world, served 2,513,563 people in Spain last year. This represents a 32% increase of the number of people needing help, according to their annual report for 2013; and an alarming 578% more than in 2007. The 70 diocesan branches invested some €291,346,117, of which 75% comes from private donations and the rest from public funding. The report points out (and thanks) the 78,017 volunteers throughout the country, as well as the 4,171 remunerated staff, all of whom work through the 7,194 Cáritas service centres. The charity also refers to last year’s increase in resources used for strategic programmes aimed at the precarious situation of people on the margins of society, such as the homeless or the long-term unemployed.