“We have already far surpassed 400 people who are being helped, between children and adults there are more than 165 families”, the coordinator of Refood in Faro told Lusa.

"According to Carlos Reis, the number of people supported has increased from 114 in 2019 to more than 400 in November 2021, an increase accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic and the fact that we are now towards the end of summer in the Algarve, when seasonal employment will fade away."

“The months of July, August and September were stable, but then, starting in October, demand started to increase a lot and now, in November it has been much more”, he reported.

After a busy summer, "in September people started to lose work and the prospect is that in December and January things will get even worse", he stressed, noting that just last week 12 families joined Refood.

“These 12 families correspond to around 30 people, it's a very big increase in the space of a week”, he says, estimating that the number of beneficiaries “can reach 500 in the space of a few weeks or a month”.

In addition to the fact that requests for support do not stop growing, there is currently “a big difference” in the profile of people who turn to Refood: some are graduates, have jobs, but even so they cannot make ends meet.

According to Carlos Reis, these are people "with completely structured lives who, from one moment to the next, find themselves in 'lay-off' and who, for the first time in their lives have had to ask for food support”.

“These are people who would never think they would be in a situation where they had to ask for food support. Food is a basic need and it's one of the last things we think we're not going to be able to have”.