The predictions are that this winter will be exceptionally hard for a lot of people on the island. The authorities and social organisations know that a lot of residents have not worked the requisite number of months during the summer to entitle them to social security payments over the winter and that there are many others who were unable to find any kind of work during the season. This has resulted in those who help in such cases looking ahead in order to try to meet the extra demand that will be placed on their services.
In the case of Ciutadella, the Council for Social Action (formed primarily by the Town Council and organisations working in the social services field) has agreed on a new initiative: to ask hotels and restaurants to donate any food items leftover at the end of the tourist season to the district's food bank. A letter to this effect will be sent to all such establishments within the municipal district by the Social Services Department this week.
Any foodstuffs received by the Town Council will be handed over to Caritas which handles the distribution of food programme in the area. The Social Services Co-ordinator, Mar Pons, explained that they were talking of food that the hotels and restaurants could not use but that could perfectly well be donated to social services. She added that this could solve the problem that usually occurs at this time of year, when "we are always short of food, so we have to choose who we can help and who we can't, and that is a very complicated and delicate process". Also, the less food there is, the less that can be handed out to each person asking for help.
Ciutadella will be the first district to use this strategy although the idea was suggested some time ago by Caritas with the plan of introducing it at a national level.
Increasing the food bank's stocks is one of the schemes to be employed to try to alleviate a hard winter. Caritas warns that it looks as though the situation over the next few months will be even worse than last year and the charity is trying to set aside increased funds to buy food without reducing the amount spent on training and helping people to find work.
Ciutadella Council has increased its budget for social commitments this year, with money saved by reducing Councillors' wages being used for this purpose.
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