By: Alexandra Bussler

Worldwide, the COVID pandemic has unleashed a new poverty wave affecting millions of people. In Portugal alone, in 2020 more than 900 000 job losses were recorded and 37% more people are searching for employment than in 2019. People with jobs that otherwise secured a reasonable living standard are now unable to make ends meet. The reliance on food aid raised by 15% and food banks are overflown by people. Many that had never imagined to have to resort to food aid are reluctant to admit this new situation of poverty, suggesting that the actual poverty crisis is even more dramatic than what these numbers show.

However, there seems to be a positive development that can be observed during the Covid pandemic. The uncertainty about the future and the loss of control that many are experiencing in these times of crisis can create conditions for change and transformation. In fact, sustainability concerns and community-based initiatives are gaining importance and attention in midst of this hardship. In Portugal, the demand for food baskets and local food providers has been increasing steadily since the onset of the pandemic. These times of uncertainty are also windows of opportunity for new pathways. Therefore, we have to take this situation seriously in order to bring the sustainability transition forward, and to make our food systems healthier, more just, more resilient and more sustainable.

This trend has also been observed in an online survey made to the consumers of the Fruta Feia food cooperative in Lisbon in October 2020. Fruta Feia is a 2013-born initiative aiming to reduce the food waste problem in Portuguese cities in collaboration with about 250 local smallholder farmers, many of them organic farming producers. Today, Fruta Feia brings ‘ugly’ fruits and veggies at social prices to the tables of 6.600 families and already saved 2.760 tons of food from the bins while creating sustainable jobs in their 12 delegations all over Portugal. The establishment of these alternative and sustainable markets even yielded them the 2020 European LIFE prize for the Environment.