Banco Alimentar recebe mais de 10 mil pedidos de ajuda em 3 semanas

Jornal i

© This was taken about halfway up the block on the east side of Broadway, between 79th and 80th Street. It’s at the north end of the “Filene’s Basement” store on the corner, and it’s a place where I’ve often seen homeless people holding up a sign that asks for assistance… With very rare exceptions, I haven’t photographed these homeless people; it seems to me that they’re in a very defensive situation, and I don’t want to take advantage of their situation. But something unusual was happening here: the two women (who were actually cooperating, and acting in tandem, despite the rather negative demeanor of the woman on the left) were giving several parcels of food to the young homeless man on the right. I don’t know if the women were bringing food from their own kitchen, or whether they had brought it from a nearby restaurant. But it was obviously a conscious, deliberate activity, and one they had thousght about for some time… What was particularly interesting was that they didn’t dwell, didn’t try to have a conversation with the young man;they gave him they food they had brought, and promptly walked away. As they left, I noticed the young man peering into his bag (the one you see on the ground beside him in this picture) to get a better sense of the delicious meal these two kind women had brought him… ********************** This is part of an evolving photo-project, which will probably continue throughout the summer of 2008, and perhaps beyond: a random collection of “interesting” people in a broad stretch of the Upper West Side of Manhattan — between 72nd Street and 104th Street, especially along Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue. I don’t like to intrude on people’s privacy, so I normally use a telephoto lens in order to photograph them while they’re still 50-100 feet away from me; but that means I have to continue focusing my attention on the people and activities half a block away, rather than on what’s right in front of me. I’ve also learned that, in many cases, the opportunities for an interesting picture are very fleeting — literally a matter of a couple of seconds, before the person(s) in question move on, turn away, or stop doing whatever was interesting. So I’ve learned to keep the camera switched on (which contradicts my traditional urge to conserve battery power), and not worry so much about zooming in for a perfectly-framed picture … after all, once the digital image is uploaded to my computer, it’s pretty trivial to crop out the parts unrelated to the main subject. For the most part, I’ve deliberately avoided photographing bums, drunks, drunks, and crazy people. There are a few of them around, and they would certainly create some dramatic pictures; but they generally don’t want to be photographed, and I don’t want to feel like I’m taking advantage of them. I’m still looking for opportunities to take some “sympathetic” pictures of such people, which might inspire others to reach out and help them. We’ll see how it goes … The only other thing I’ve noticed, thus far, is that while there are lots of interesting people to photograph, there are far, far, *far* more people who are *not* so interesting. They’re probably fine people, and they might even be more interesting than the ones I’ve photographed … but there was just nothing memorable about them.

23/04/2020

18:39

O Banco Alimentar contra a fome registou um pico nos pedidos de ajuda por parte da população carenciada nesta fase de pandemia.

Segundo Isabel Jonet, atual Presidente da Federação Portuguesa dos Bancos Alimentares Contra a Fome, o Banco Alimentar, desde a noite de quarta-feira, dia 23 de abril, recebeu 10.668 pedidos de ajuda.

Estes pedidos de ajuda, representam as necessidades dos respetivos agregados familiares, por isso, a presidente da instituição estima que se trate de cerca de 50 mil pessoas de todos os estratos sociais representados nestes apelos.

“Temos [pedidos de ajuda] desde jogadores de futebol de ligas semiprofissionais e amadoras que ficaram sem rendimentos, até pessoas que trabalham em circos ambulatórios, pessoas que trabalham nas feiras, condutores de tuk-tuk, profissões ligadas ao turismo, as pessoas que trabalhavam em restaurantes, empregadas domésticas, cabeleireiras, manicures, há uma panóplia tal de profissões que foram atingidas que temos dificuldade em caraterizar”, disse Isabel Jonet em entrevista à Sic Notícias.

Numa notícia divulgada no JN, o jornal falava sobre como o Banco Alimentar tinha stock até ao final de maio, contudo, face ao aumento do número de pedidos e de terem sido obrigados a cancelar as campanhas de recolha de alimentos em maio esta instituição teme que o seu stock de produtos possa chegar ao fim. "É um grande constrangimento, uma vez que estas campanhas de recolha representam a grande maioria do abastecimento para os seis meses seguintes", disse Isabel Jonet ao JN.

Para responder a este problema, a instituição criou a Rede de Emergência Alimentar e um canal de doações online, onde, além de alimentos também pode ser doado dinheiro.