The Table - food where it belongs: A German Food Security initiative

My first thought after the "Who is affected by hunger and food insecurity in your community?" was: probably nobody. We are in Germany - known for a high percentage of overweighted people.

Taking a look at the World hunger map and the specific data on Germany compared to the the deep red spot on the map: Congo kind of backs up my theory.

The reality looks a bit different. A couple million Germans live in income poverty - especially single parents, job less-, low income. and retired citizens. Because the rents can be very high and food is expensive many of them save money in reducing nutrition - with an impact on their health.

At the same time we have a huge amount of food thrown away every day by supermarkets, restaurants, markets and food producers - high quality food that does not meet the economic cycles and market requirements.

The German NGO Die Tafel ( The Table ) addresses this in-balance. They collect donations and food which would be thrown away and provide it to more than 2000 local tables and around 1.000.000 citizens in need. This is done by around 40.000 volunteers and 3000 transportation vehicles.

Those in need receive the food for free - in exchange for a symbolic coin.

The food producer and shops reduce disposal costs and act on social responsibility

One of the local tables operates in my region. The slogan of Die Tafel is: food - where it belongs to.

Website (in German:) http://www.tafel.de

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end report Mission 2 - Learn 2: Assignment: