With the Open Table and the Food Bank, free distribution of fruit this week throughout Gard

Distribution de palettes de pêches et abricots place Saint-Charles à Nîmes

Ce jeudi 4 juillet, la Banque Alimentaire en collaboration avec l’association La Table Ouverte a distribué gratuitement dans le quartier Gambetta des fruits issus du département.

On Place Saint-Charles in Nîmes in the Gambetta district, around ten volunteers distributed free peaches and apricots this Thursday, July 4 in the morning. The companies Salvador Zoroddu of Jonquières-Saint-Vincent and Mas du Soleil de Beaucaire offered their production to the Food Bank for this operation in partnership with the association La Table Ouvert. In total, two pallets of fruit, or 1.3 tonnes in total, sold in 45 minutes.

Volunteers distribute fruit crates to beneficiaries.

Pietro Truddaiu, president of the Open Table explains the importance of these neighborhoods and these distribution operations:"I come from a poor family, so I want to help! In Gambetta-Richelieu the poverty rate is 40%, we act in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of Gard, making a total of 16 areas. We started these distributions last year and just in this area we distributed 20 tons of fruit for the summer of 2023."

"There are difficulties in selling fruits and vegetables"< /h2>

According to him, in the summer, many humanitarian associations are closed so there are a lot of fruits and vegetables (zucchini, melon…) to collect: "this is the season when we are given the most, there are difficulties in selling seasonal fruits and vegetables, before that rotted and we threw them away, now it allows us to give to the most precarious".

David Peytavin, employee of the Food Bank, particularly appreciates these moments of human contact: "It’s always a pleasure! Our mission is to supply the associations, so we never see the beneficiaries, these distributions are an opportunity to see them smile, and that is priceless.

Fruits and vegetables have become too expensive?

Nearly 200 beneficiaries came this Thursday to collect these fruit crates. Among them Marianne, retired, and Sonia unemployed: "It’s very good that there are distribution operations, we couldn't afford fruit every week, that’ rsquo;has become too expensive."

These distributions take place all summer in the priority districts of Gard:

Thursday July 4, 2024:

10:00 a.m. with the Table Ouverte association place St Charles in Nîmes

3:30 p.m. in the Mas de Mingue district of Nîmes

Friday July 05, 2024:

In the morning with the Red Cross of Alès

In the morning at Pont St Esprit

In the afternoon with the CCAS of Uzès