NGO demands Uruguay government provide solution to food crisis

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Popular and Solidarity Coordinating Committee (CPS) of Uruguay demanded that the government of President Luis Lacalle Pou provide a serious and long-term solution to the food crisis that the country is going through.

On World Food Day, the social organization demanded that the government cease to neglect the severe problems of the population.

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“Given the lack of dialogue and response from the authorities, due to the food crisis in our neighborhoods, in addition to the general deterioration of living conditions, we will continue to say: “Now!”

According to the Nutrition Observatory of the University of the Republic, 6.4% of the population in Uruguay is in severe food insecurity, while 23.2% is in a situation of moderate food insecurity.

In this regard, CPS pointed out that in 2020, some 100,000 people will fall below the poverty line in Uruguay.

This Friday, October 15, the CPS organized a rally in front of the Ministry of Social Development (Mides), with the slogan “Work, Bread, and Shelter”. Banners with messages such as “enough hunger”, “enough inequality”, “enough precariousness”, “enough negotiating with people’s needs” surrounded the Monumento al Gaucho in the square located in front of the Mides building.

Popular pots and picnic tables were concentrated in demand for “decent” food and work after a year and a half of the pandemic.

The purpose of the protest was “to make visible the work carried out by the soup kitchens in the territories, and that no one should ignore”, said Esteban Corrales, one of the mobilization organizers.

CPS was created a year ago, amid the economic and social crisis aggravated by the Covid 19 pandemic, envisioning new forms of organization that vindicate and strengthen the concept of Solidarity.

The government delegated its responsibility of distributing food for groups such as CPS to process and distribute it to a private organization such as Uruguay Adelante, which fails to comply to ensure quality food, they denounced.

Hugo Leivas, from CPS, stated that they requested an interview with ministry authorities a year and a half ago without receiving a response.

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