Citizens will especially feel the increase in food prices during preparations for the upcoming holidays. Many will welcome them much more modestly, and almost 40 thousand fellow citizens are wondering if they will even have a decent meal today. Managers of soup kitchens, who are the only hope for many, assess this. The number of socially vulnerable is constantly increasing.
With a lowered head and a downcast look. It’s as if they can’t wait to leave with their cooked meal, which for some will be the only meal of the day. Senad Porić has also been standing in line every day for eight years. Although his health is impaired, he does not run away from work, but he does not have one.
“Thanks to the donors, good people, if it wasn’t for them I would have to eat out of a garbage bin. I’m not in the best of health, I’m taking pills. I also thank these people for trying to cook,” says Senad.
“I have a pension, but it is small. By the time I pay utilities, I have nothing left. Everything is expensive, prices are rising, they are increasing every day. While I buy medicine for my mother…”, says soup kitchen user Zrinko Bujanović.
The number of socially vulnerable is constantly increasing. This year alone, Merhamet from Bihac distributed more than 72,000 meals to almost three hundred beneficiaries. Without donors, it would be difficult, they admit, because the help of the cantonal and city authorities is symbolic.
“There is more of a population that is socially threatened. There are people who are ashamed to approach, because their pride still does not allow them to go beyond that and ask for help. People have been brought to that situation by the state system,” emphasizes the president of Merhamet Bihać, Fikret Draganović.
This organization regularly distributes family food packages to the most vulnerable. Thus, these days too, with the help of donors, food for the holiday table will be provided.
“I like to cook, I love our people, I feel sorry for them. Especially the elderly and children. They really don’t have any. And these pensioners with minimum incomes, what will they do? While they buy medicine, pay utilities, they have nothing to eat,” says Ervina Žerić, an employee of Merhamet Bihać.
In addition to the kitchen, Merhamet has a cold store and two greenhouses on its own land, and in the coming period they plan to expand agricultural production – all this to ensure smooth operation and the necessary conditions for at least one safe meal for citizens in need.
