The foodbank also has outlets in Midden-Drenthe, Aa en Hunze, and Tynaarlo
Translated by Thomas Ansell
As reported by the Asser Courant, the foodbank Hart van Drenthe has moved premises to a building at Zeilmakerstraat 10A- the previous home of the Hippo Assen. Volunteers will use the month of September to convert the building for the foodbanks’ purposes, so that packages can be given out from 29 September.
According to the coordinator of Hart van Drenthe, Reitse Heerze, around 220 families use the service at the moment (the Netherlands is the fifth richest country in Europe, with a GDP per capita of about 60,000 euros). “Those families will shortly receive a voucher, which will be shared out this week. This can be used to buy groceries at a supermarket”, says Heerze.
The vouchers have been paid for from the national food bank associations’ “calamity fund”. Heerze: “the vouchers have a fixed value. But it’s needed, because we want to keep giving food out, but could not at our old Brunelstraat location.”
Aaltje Pol, the secretary of Hart van Drenthe, says that the old location wasn’t ‘Coronaproof’. “Together with the Gemeente Assen, we’ve found another location. We had been using the hall of the iWerk facility on the Wiltonstraat since the end of March, but we’re now definitively moving. The new building means that we can keep to Coronavirus regulations, and also has better access for those with lower mobility.”
Jan Broekema (SP), a Wethouder at the Gemeente Assen with oversight that includes poverty in the city, says that despite Coronavirus regulations, the show must go on: “the Corona-crisis has affected us all, so we must put in place any solutions that we can provide for people.”
Image via Wikimedia user Rene Cortin. License here.
