Fighting hunger on the home front

While hunger might seem a remote problem for most Poles, this year around 1.6 million people could benefit from the government's food program and zł.500 million from the state budget will be spent on the campaign.

According to Krzysztof Mikulski, from the Department of Social Assistance and Integration of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the money will be used to provide food for schoolchildren as well as to help organize new points for preparing and distributing free meals for the needy.

Mikulski underlined the importance of the cooperation of local governments with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to combat hunger and poverty.

NGOs claim wider action is needed to eradicate the hunger problem. "A preventive program aimed at helping those in danger of being excluded from society has to be worked out. Where there is exclusion there is hunger and poverty," said Scholastyka Śniegowska, the coordinator of the campaign against hunger, which is being organized by Monar. She estimates that 20 million Poles could live in poverty, most of them suffering from malnutrition.

According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Labor, 57 percent of Poles lived on the poverty line in 2004.

Last year the poverty line meant an income of zł.844 per person per month. Twelve percent of Poles lived below the subsistence level in 2004, which, by 2005 standards, meant they had just zł.385 per month at their disposal each.