Europe’s largest economy is facing a deepening crisis as food banks in Germany struggle to meet growing demand, with many now forced to ration food supplies.
Andreas Steppuhn, chairman of Tafel, the umbrella organization for Germany’s 960 food banks, revealed that 60 percent of these institutions are limiting distributions due to an unprecedented surge in users driven by inflation and rising poverty.
“The situation in Melle is representative of the situation of many food banks in Germany,” Steppuhn explained, referring to a small town in Lower Saxony where food distribution has been cut from twice a week to every two weeks. “Numerous food banks have reached their capacity limits: a third are trying to help themselves with temporary admission stops or waiting lists, which they work through wherever possible. With such solutions, food banks try to stay afloat and at the same time help as many people as possible,” he said in an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung.
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🔺500,000 jobs lost since Scholz became chancellor
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And the list goes on… pic.twitter.com/cxbTQ8NPOx
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 15, 2024Since the start of the war in Ukraine, food bank usage has increased by 50 percent, with around 1.6 million people now relying on these services. Steppuhn emphasized that the food banks are not a full solution to hunger: “The Tafel is not a full-service provider; we also provide support with rescued food. If you get less, you have to buy more. This of course leads to higher costs.”
Germany’s poverty rate now threatens 14 million people, according to the General Parity Association’s poverty report. “If everyone came to the table… we couldn’t do that. We are a voluntary organization, not part of the welfare state system,” Steppuhn said.
The growing reliance on food banks has also sparked societal tensions, with some critics highlighting cases of food bank users arriving in luxury cars, questioning the eligibility of recipients. Steppuhn dismissed these instances as rare and often misunderstood. “There are probably cases where this is not the case – as in other areas. This can never be ruled out, but it is not a major phenomenon; it is limited to individual cases.”
In several German states, around three-quarters of benefit claimants are either first or second-generation migrants, suggesting that mass immigration of low-skilled workers is not a net benefit to Europe's largest economy. https://t.co/CDuopkbYL5
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 21, 2024Steppuhn placed the responsibility for addressing poverty squarely on the government, saying that the food banks are stretched beyond capacity. “Fighting poverty is the task of politics. Food banks cannot absorb and take over what the state has failed to do for decades,” he stated. He called for a comprehensive strategy to combat poverty.
While Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s suggestion of reducing VAT on food could offer temporary relief, Steppuhn cautioned that it does not solve the systemic problems. “One thing is clear to me: there needs to be a fully funded basic child benefit, crisis-proof wages, poverty-proof pensions, affordable housing – there are a lot of screws that need to be turned.”
The food banks also face bureaucratic hurdles, including stringent hygiene regulations and outdated laws around best-before dates, which hinder food donations. “We are calling for a food rescue law that creates new regulations, reduces tax hurdles, and makes donations easier and creates incentives for them,” Steppuhn urged.
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— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 22, 2024Some argue that a significant percentage of migrants using food banks do so after sending the vast majority of their benefits back home to family members — a move the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) wants to eradicate.
Calling in March for a reduction in “poverty migration to zero,” AfD parliamentary group spokesperson René Springer said, “All false incentives must be eliminated immediately.
“We need a strict principle of benefits in kind for asylum seekers — bread, bed, and soap. There should be nothing more. Only then can we really assume that people who ask for asylum here are actually seeking protection. Asylum is only intended for this purpose and not as an access portal to German social benefits,” he continued.
Food bank usage is rising at a time when the vast majority of those receiving welfare payments in Germany have a foreign background.
As reported by Remix News last month, statistics from the Federal Employment Agency (BA) revealed that of the more than 4 million people who can work but receive social benefits, more than 2.5 million have a migration background, constituting 63.5 percent. This group includes foreigners and those who have a foreign background, which means their parents may have been born abroad.
The cost of providing this social welfare rose to €12.2 billion last year, but in total, Germany spent nearly €50 billion on immigrants and protecting its border last year.
Nearly half of all Syrians in Germany remain dependent on the citizens’ benefit, nearly a decade after the 2015 asylum wave.
