foodKIND

Our Mission

Conflict, persecution, poverty and climate change have forced millions of people to flee their homes every year. Positioned on Europe's frontier, Greece has experienced an enormous influx of forcibly displaced people and is under immense pressure to support them. Seven years into this crisis, government funding and other major projects that supported this community previously are in rapid decline, and many have closed down. This has resulted in widespread food insecurity throughout Greece, but particularly in and around Athens where an estimated 50,000 asylum seekers reside. foodKIND's mission remains to provide food with compassion in situations where people do not have access to regular food supplies and where basic human needs are not being met. We do so by providing people of vulnerable communities in Athens with dried and tinned foods and essential hygiene products, through a registered list of beneficiaries, who qualify based on a needs assessment. We try to prioritise those who do not have access to income, to ensure that our limited resources can reach those most in need. We recognise that covering the basic need of food is one of the largest issues this community is facing, and that many adults and children live with food insecurity, which impedes on their everyday lives but also on prospects for their future. foodKIND helps to fill this crucial gap in the response to asylum seekers in Athens ensuring that the people we support are able to feed themselves and their children, whilst also giving them a sense of security, and enabling them to focus their attention and limited money on bettering their circumstances.

foodKIND is governed by a firm belief in the human rights enshrined in the UN Charters, particularly that "the right to adequate food is realised when every man, woman and child, alone or in community with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement". This human right to accessing food is not being upheld in countless family situations in Athens. foodKIND helps to tackle this situation.

We operationalise this mission in three main ways: the first is through distributions in our freemarket in Athens, where most of our "customers" come and choose their items themselves. Part of our mission is to provide our programs in a dignified and efficient way - by maintaining the element of choice, people receive items they actually want and we can ensure that funding is used as efficiently as possible.

The second aspect of our program is the "mother's packs" program, by which we assemble and distribute nutrient rich food to pregnant and nursing mothers. These packages were designed in collaboration with a midwife and a nutritionist, and support the healthy development of the baby as well as providing extra protein and essential vitamins and minerals to the mother.

The final aspect of our program is our outreach program to people living with mobility issues. This includes physical disabilities and mental health issues, as well as mobility restrictions many single parents face, creating an extra obstacle to their access to food. We assemble packages based on individual people's preferences, and deliver these food packages to them at their homes. This allows us to reach the most vulnerable social groups.