Due to a financial setback for a month not having enough money to do shopping, but due to a too high salary cannot go to the Food Bank. It happens regularly. Five years ago, the Red Cross therefore started publishing shopping cards from supermarkets. However, phasing out is impossible. More and more people are in line with the organization.
“Poverty seems to deepen in the Netherlands,” says Harm Goossens, director of the Dutch Red Cross. “The constant increase in inflation is particularly hard for people with lower incomes, together with rising fixed costs such as energy costs. We also see that people do not register for allowances or help from the municipality. They experience it as inaccessible, complicated or distrust of the government.”
In Hoogeveen, Welzijnswerk Hoogeveen distributes those shopping cards on behalf of the Red Cross. Debby Jongsma sees that the cards are desperately needed. Employees regularly come into contact with people who do not know how to do shopping this week. “Those are people from all the layers of the population. For example, when they have to buy for their children’s school or if the washing machine breaks. There are arrangements for this, but there is often look at income.”
The emergency aid organization started distributing food packages during Corona, but quickly replaced them with (digital) shopping cards. This includes an amount of 21.50 euros. The card provides little extra work: packages no longer have to be distributed, so that fewer people are needed.
Goossens: “Thanks to this card, people can choose what they buy in the supermarket and take into account any allergies. They also get a bit of dignity back by deciding what they spend the money on.”
Someone can use the cards for a maximum of 26 weeks. “Usually it is people who are already known to us,” says Jongsma about the situation in Hoogeveen. “Our social workers are also sharp and we work together with a counter on money matters. In the meantime, we also look at the cause and we try to help those people with their problems, so that they can take care of themselves again after a shopping card.”
Nationally, more than 5,000 people contacted the Red Cross help desk last year. “We don’t see the situation for people in food needs improving. In fact, we are very concerned about the future. Conductibility seems to disappear for certain groups in the Netherlands. People with debts or without residential papers are sent from the box to the wall. In various places in the Netherlands, help for this group of people are even being withdrawn,” Goossens said.