Over 4 Million Italians on Food Assistance

Over 4 million Italians required food aid in 2013





#Italy’s farmers' association, #Coldiretti says that over four million people required food #aid in 2013, and more than 300,000 Italians ate charity soup kitchen meals. Also last year, almost 3.8 million, particularly #pensioners, the unemployed and families with small children, received assistance in the form of food parcels. Italy's National bureau of statistics Istat said Thursday that over 28 percent of people living in Italy in 2013 were at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The agency has also warned that the number of poor in the country has doubled to at least 4.8 million since the last year of #GDP growth in 2007. Catholic #charity Caritas has blamed lack of a national plan to fight poverty as one of the main reasons for Italy’s failure to alleviate the poor’s sufferings. It has also blamed the problem on consecutive administrations governing during years of the economic crisis from 2007 to 2013, accusing them of not taking any serious measures to tackle #poverty.