The annual appeal for donations for the Food Bank in Occitanie has been far more successful than organisers had feared. Worried that the gilets jaunes protestors would block access to the supermarkets last weekend seem to have been confounded as donations often far exceed the previous year. Often it seems that people used local smaller shops to source their donations and one small town of about 10000 inhabitants gave 1500 kilos of foodstuffs compared to 650 in 2017.
Perhaps the claims of the protestors that many ordinary working families are suffering hardship led to the generosity of their fellow citizens. Locally it is estimated that Tarn and Garonne has contributed 150 tonnes to the Food Bank stocks. Now it remains for the volunteers to sort and re-distribute the foods to the various charities who will pass them on to needy public.
