Europe
The first European food bank was founded in France during 1984. Similar to the UK, they have become much more common within continental Europe since the crisis that began in 2007, and especially since austerity began to take effect from late 2010. In Spain, demand for food has been such that some have resorted to extra-legal methods to acquire it; in August 2012 the "Robin Hood" mayor Sánchez Gordillo led raids where food was forcibly removed from supermarkets, and later given to food banks. The number of food banks has increased rapidly even in Germany, a country that has weathered the crisis relatively well, and has not needed to implement severe austerity. In 2012, professor Sabine Pfeiffer of Munich University of Applied Sciences said there has been an "explosion" of food bank usage.
Read more about this topic: Food Banks
Famous quotes containing the word europe:
“The American is said to become full-flavored, and in time a most all-round man, through the polish which Europe can impart.”
—M. E. W. Sherwood (1826–1903)
“In Europe art has to a large degree taken the place of religion. In America it seems rather to be science.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“The city is recruited from the country. In the year 1805, it is said, every legitimate monarch in Europe was imbecile. The city would have died out, rotted, and exploded, long ago, but that it was reinforced from the fields. It is only country which came to town day before yesterday, that is city and court today.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)