Food bank for culture sector set up during Covid pandemic closes

Non-profit organisation Feed the Culture, which opened a food bank for people in the cultural sector during the pandemic, will have to close at the end of June due to a lack of subsidies.

“We’re no longer receiving subsidies from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and have no prospect of receiving any money from the Brussels region,” coordinator Pauline Duclaud-Lacoste told Bruzz.

The organisation collects surplus food from supermarkets and restaurants that would otherwise be thrown away and makes it available each Saturday to people from the cultural sector who are struggling financially.

“We started in June 2020, and I haven't missed a single weekend since then,” said Duclaud-Lacoste.

“We’ve been able to support about 8,000 artists and performers, about 140 to 150 every week. We’re the only non-profit organisation that supports the cultural sector. Without us, there is nothing for them.”

Duclaud-Lacoste said the subsidies were cut without consultation or warning by French-speaking culture minister Élisabeth Degryse (Les Engagés).

“I contacted the minister's office in January and was told that there was no more money for my non-profit organisation due to budgetary constraints,” said Duclaud-Lacoste.

“They also said that there would no longer be a legal basis for our subsidy.”

Degryse responded to the issue in the parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation and her spokesperson said the issue was that Duclaud-Lacoste failed to submit an application for the funding.

But Duclaud-Lacoste said that the only reason she did not submit the application was because she had already been told the funding would be cut, providing proof in the form of email correspondence with Degryse’s staff that indeed indicated as much.

Even if she were to submit an application now and have it approved, Duclaud-Lacoste said that the funding would not have come in time.

“A subsidy application normally takes months, and we don't have that time,” said Duclaud-Lacoste.

“If no money is made available in the next few days, around €30,000, we will have to stop. And there is no alternative for us.”

Temporarily suspending activities is not an option, she added: “I have supplies in the refrigerators, freezers, tables, crockery... If we stop, we won’t be able to restart within a few days if the money does become available. And then all those Brussels artists will be left out in the cold.”