Lisbon, June 1, 2026 (Lusa) - The Food Bank Against Hunger campaign collected 1,930 tonnes of food this weekend, the charity announced on Monday, 2.5% more than in the same campaign in 2025.
The increase is “an expression of the consistently demonstrated and genuine solidarity shown by the Portuguese people”, the president of the Portuguese Federation of Food Banks, Isabel Jonet, said in a statement from the organisation.
The Food Bank campaign involved around 40,000 volunteers at more than 2,000 retail outlets nationwide.
The food items collected “are very important in a context marked by growing international instability, armed conflicts in various regions of the world, disruptions to supply chains and a general rise in the prices of essential goods and energy,” said Jonet.
Challenges that “result in a situation where many families face increased difficulties in accessing groceries and may be pushed into poverty”, she warned.
Before the campaign began, Jonet had spoken of an increase in requests for support from families in need to the Food Bank Against Hunger due to rising fuel prices and housing costs.
The rise in requests for food aid in April indicates that families have lost hope that the increase in the cost of living is merely temporary and that an agreement will be reached to halt the current rise in fuel prices driven by the war, Jonet explained.
The Food Bank’s food collection campaigns take place twice a year, usually on the last weekends of May and November, to collect basic foodstuffs such as milk, rice, pasta, olive oil, cooking oil, pulses and beans, tuna, sausages, biscuits and breakfast cereals.
In addition to supermarkets, food collection is also taking place online until 7 June via the ‘Alimente esta Ideia’ digital platform or the Food Bank’s Online Donations Portal.
The products will be sent to the Food Bank’s warehouses in the respective region, where they will be weighed, sorted and packed for delivery to 2,400 beneficiary organisations, as in previous campaigns.
“It is these organisations that will bring the food to the tables of those most in need, through food hampers or ready-made meals, currently around 370,000 people living in poverty and facing food insecurity,” the statement notes.
Participation is also possible through vouchers for selected products, such as olive oil, cooking oil, milk, sausages and tinned tuna, with each voucher representing one unit of the product.
With this method, available at supermarket checkouts, the retail chain delivers the products to the Food Bank in its region, thereby reducing the logistical burden of managing hundreds of volunteers and sorting and transporting the collected food.
In 2025, during the Food Bank Against Hunger campaign, which began on the last day of May, 1,878 tonnes of food were collected in supermarkets.
The collection campaign in November 2025, however, saw a 2.8% drop compared to the corresponding campaign in 2024, collecting 2,150 tonnes of food.
VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
