Distribution of hot meals for refugees starts at Info Park

Distribution of hot meals for refugees starts at Info Park

Three meals a day are provided by Caritas, Save The Children and the Refugee Aid Serbia in the amounts that currently fully satisfy the needs of the people who live around the parks near Belgrade's main bus station.

"Yesterday was distributed 300 meals for lunch. On the menu were beans, rice, mixed salad and pita, meaning, a high-calorie vegetarian meal. The overall impression is very good, refugees are thrilled to have been given cooked food instead of the dry packages. After the distribution, we visited the park to make sure that the content of the meals is eaten to the last, and that food is no longer being thrown away. Lunch is provided by Save The Children, and we thank them for their help," said Branislava Djonin, and Info Park volunteer. Currently the number of meals distributed every day via Info Park is about 1,400, of which Caritas gives away 800 packages of breakfast pastry, while 300 hot meals are distributed for lunch and dinner.

Info Park emphasized that in addition to providing better nutrition, one of the advantages of switching to cooked food is that it prevents the risk of the humanitarian effort boosting the black market, where cans, biscuits and other items that make up the content of humanitarian assistance that other organizations give to refugees, are sold.

Both in Subotica and in Belgrade in recent weeks an increase in such activities has been noted, which only points to the inadequacy of this method of providing assistance, a waste of resources, and an endangering of public order and peace. "We have been in favor of giving refugees only hot meals and fresh food for a while now. First of all, it is a far more natural diet than eating canned food,
unless those are ready-made meals that can be reheated. Considering that numerous items from the Red Cross packages more often than not end up on the streets and in markets instead of as refugee rations, it is necessary to take into account the appropriateness of such ways of assistance. For us there is no doubt about what is better for refugees - good quality, cooked meals are. In particular, we do not want to see this vulnerable population being included into the gray economy of this country and risky financial transactions on the street," said Djonin.