Named Charitable Allotment the project aims to grow its own produce to provide hungry families throughout the region with a balanced diet.
It is the result of a partnership between the Justice Ministry and the Portuguese Federation for Food Banks, being carried out by prisons where there is land for farming with a view to getting inmates involved in helping.
Describing the application of the project as an “old ambition” the Algarve Food Bank said until recently it had hit a wall as none of the region’s prison facilities had land that was appropriate.
But that has now been overcome after the regional branch of the Agricultural Ministry gave a 2,670 square metre plot of land to the Algarve Food Bank to farm, with the collaboration and sponsorship of local businesses and entities.
With the help of companies Plantalgarve and Vidaverde, who supplied the seeds, and recycling plant Algar, which supplies the Nutriverde compost, sowing has already begun on the plot.
However, the statement from the Food Bank elaborates, to be able to respond to all of the region’s needs the project must continually grow and more work is still needed, particularly regarding the renovation of an area of greenhouses that has been offered up for the project “but needs investment to be useable.”
It explains that the project aims to reduce the Food Bank’s dependency on third parties to help improve the diets of the region’s needy in terms of supplying fresh produce.