European Food Banks Federation - FEBA

Welcome to the team Mariana Luísa Santos! Mariana Santos has an educational background in Strategic Communications and Management of Cultural and Creative Industries. In Portugal, she worked mostly in the Cultural field, for theatres, festivals, and independent artists and collectives. In 2021, in Brussels, she dived into the EU Bubble. After a traineeship at the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU, she worked for INESC Brussels HUB, the European representation of the largest Research & Technology institute in Portugal. In her childhood and teenage years, as a scout, she volunteered regularly for the Portuguese Food Bank. Being a frequent spectator (and sometimes player) of performative arts, she loves to understand what connects people and create the ideal moments for sharing and building communities. While enthusiastic about discovering the Belgian life and culture, a simple grilled seabass (Portuguese style) tastes like happiness to her. #WeAreFEBA

On 29 August 2024 the FEBA Team visited the Food Bank in Hainaut occidental et de Mons-Borinage from Voedselbanken - Banques Alimentaires (FEBA Member in Belgium). We visited the warehouse facilities and cold room storage as well as seeing the different food products. After the tour we discussed the Food Banks activities and future opportunities. Thank you for hosting us and offering the team valuable insights into the day-to-day activities.

We are excited to announce that we joined the European Food Forum!

Today we held our monthly knowledge-sharing webinar series: FEBA Morning Insights (MOIN). On the agenda of MOIN's August edition was a deep-dive presentation about the FoodCloud Kitchen that showcases how surplus food can be effectively used for social purposes: their menus are created using ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted. The expert was Karen Capcarrere - Food Safety & Projects Manager, FoodCloud. During the webinar, our speaker Karen explained why they decided to open the Kitchen and shared  key points on how they maintained this project. Choosing the right chef was an essential part of the process. Karen also shared how they tried different ideas and pilot projects, before opening FoodCloud Kitchen. One of them was the FoodCloud Food Truck: using a variety of surplus food from their Hubs, as ingredients to prepare delicious dishes for the people, community organisations and corporate partners at markets, festivals and events. 📌 Do you produce apple juice by yourself? 📌 Are you freezing the meals you produce in the kitchen? 📌 How do you work with volunteers, who are not professional chefs? These were a few of the most asked questions during the Q&A  after the presentation. To sum up the webinar - FoodCloud Kitchen is one of the examples of how Food Banks can change and transform surplus food. Thank you to Karen for the very insightful presentation and to all the participants who joined! We will see you in September for our next MOIN session. #WeAreFEBA

Friday last week, Network Development Coordinator Anna Friederitz visited FEBA Member FødevareBanken in Denmark. 🦺Her day started early at 7:00 in the morning at the warehouse in Aarhus. She joined volunteer Niels on his tour to redistribute surplus food to charities and met with Director Lea Gry von Cotta-Schønberg and the team. Thank you for hosting us! Tak!

TESCO has been supporting Food Banks in the FEBA network across Europe for almost 10 years! During this year's FEBA Annual Convention in Prague we had an opportunity to talk with Ian Hutchins, about Tesco Stores CR, a.s.’s support and partnership with Czech Federation of Food Banks, the importance of donation and future developments on sustainability reporting. Check out the video and learn more about the 4 points of change proposed by Tesco and Food Banks. Once again, we want to thank Tesco for their continuous support and engagement with Food Banks across Europe! 🇮🇪🇬🇧🇵🇱🇭🇺🇨🇿🇸🇰 #WeAreFEBA

Each year, WHD focuses on a theme, bringing together partners from across the humanitarian system to advocate for the survival, well-being and dignity of people affected by crises, and for the safety and security of aid workers. This year World Humanitarian Day goes with campaign theme #ActForHumanity. In February 2022, with Russia starting a full invasion in Ukraine it caused a new chapter in humanitarian crises in Europe. As FEBA and the Food Banks across Europe started to support Ukraine and send food as well as supporting Ukrainians coming to Europe, the solidarity and humanity in the network became clear. In Ukraine, the work of the Українська Федерація Банків Продовольства (FEBA Associate Member in Ukraine) has become indispensable to respond to the humanitarian crisis. Food Bank volunteers regularly prepare food kits and then transfer the formed sets to local public organizations or other charitable organizations and social institutions, which in turn distribute the products to the people. We want to thank all humanitarian workers for their contribution in changing this world for a better place.

In 2023, 20 million children in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion - 24.8% of the population aged less than 18 according to Eurostat 📊 . This shockingly high percentage draws a grim picture and renders initiatives, such as the European Child Guarantee and the EU School Fruits, Vegetables, and Milk Scheme, even more important. European Food Banks are also doing their best to specifically address the nutritional needs of the youngest members of our societies by redistributing food and non-food products for babies and toddlers 🍼 . Besides providing material support, they are further involved in school meal programmes, weekend or holiday support schemes, as well as other projects for and with children. I collected qualitative and quantitative information on their activities in 2023 and summarised the key findings in European Food Banks Federation - FEBA's new report "Tackling Food Insecurity among Children - EU Policy Context and the Activities of European Food Banks" now available on our website. Thank you Lilli R. for drafting the policy chapter and Reneta Krivonozova for your input on behalf of Eurochild. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eEruF_2R.

🇲🇩 Banca de alimente (FEBA Associate Member in the Republic of Moldova) in partnership with the Association of Italian Chefs organised the awareness-raising event "It is noble to cook without waste". The event brought together content creators in the field of cooking, restaurant owners, chefs and public persons concerned with this topic in the Republic of Moldova. 🧑🍳 The event participants attended a masterclass on zero-waste practices, conducted by 2 Chefs, then, in a discussion workshop, topics were discussed about the current state of the phenomenon, local and international traditions in the field, zero-waste practices in the kitchen. 🍳Preventing food waste in the kitchen and cherishing food requires wisdom, talent, skill and creativity. 🍴This is an approach with traditions in the local culture, but also an innovative concern in the modern art of cooking, the participants said. Consumerism, the wide range of products on offer, the decreasing amount of time a family devotes to cooking, lack of knowledge about the value of food - these are the most common causes of food waste today. 👏 Congratulations to Banca de alimente for this great event and awareness raising campaign! #WeAreFEBA

At the end of May, we held our FEBA Annual Forum with the theme “How material support can pave the path towards social inclusion”. 📌 The forum convened FEBA Members and other stakeholders and experts to take stock of the most important policies at EU level on social inclusion and food aid measures (FEAD, REACT-EU, CARE and ESF+). More specifically how the distribution of material support can foster social inclusion and which measures were taken by Food Banks and other partner organisations to strengthen social inclusion. 🔗We published a report to summarise the discussions and information shared during online event: https://lnkd.in/eCvZPGx8 European Commission Red Cross EU Office Banques Alimentaires Maisto Bankas European Social Fund Agency Federación Española de Bancos de Alimentos (FESBAL) Estonian Food Bank / Eesti Toidupank Eurodiaconia #WeAreFEBA