Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, August 10 2021 – New state resources are arriving to be allocated to food aid measures for families and people in difficulty due to the Covid-19 emergency. The amount of the share attributed to the Municipality of Milan, based on the 'Sostegni-bis' decree, is 5 million and 893 thousand euros.

Of these funds, 700.000 euros will be used to follow up on the second food aid scheme based on the disbursement for the year 2021 of contributions in favor of third sector entities for the purchase and distribution of foodstuffs reserved for the weakest sections of the population .

The most significant figures, 3 million and 1 million and 393 thousand euros, are intended to implement the financial availability for the scrolling of the ranking of beneficiaries of the notices for the disbursement of contributions and for the disbursement of shopping vouchers.

Five hundred thousand euros will support the launch of an initiative for the distribution of hot meals through solidarity canteens and with the involvement of Milano Ristorazione. Finally, 300.000 are intended for the distribution of new extra centralized supplies, on the model developed in winter 2020, for the most critical periods, when there is a greater demand for food aid.

Overall, this is a continuation of what the Administration did in 2020 to combat food poverty, when a first food aid scheme was launched (March-June 2020) through the direct distribution of food aid to 6.337 families, coordinated with third sector bodies, then strengthened by integrating it with the distribution of shopping vouchers to a further 13.877 families.

In winter 2020, centralized supplies of extra food commodities were made available, in synergy with third sector bodies, for the distribution of food aid to 4.500 families and, finally, a second food aid device was activated, for months from March to December 2021, through the involvement of seven third sector bodies, to strengthen the distribution of food aid to 2.900 families, then integrated with the distribution of new shopping vouchers to a further 5.488 families.

"In recent years the Municipality has committed itself to strengthening and making more effective the measures to combat food poverty – explain the deputy mayor with responsibility for Food policy Anna Scavuzzo and the councilor for Social and housing policies Gabriele Rabaiotti –. Thanks also to the synergistic action of the Social Policies Directorate, Food Policy Office and Civil Protection, the available resources have been strengthened and better distributed in the neighborhoods, which is in continuity with what has been done so far".