Public Defender: overall situation in free meal services across Georgia “unsatisfactory”
The report said the small amount of money allocated for soup kitchens was “especially noticeable” in the Tbilisi municipality, where the amount per beneficiary is ₾1.30 (about $0.47), which is less than the daily amount per beneficiary in the regions. Photo: www.ombudsman.ge
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The overall situation in free meal services across Georgia is “unsatisfactory”, a new report by the Georgian Public Defender’s Office said on Tuesday after the inspection of 59 randomly selected free meal venues operating in 25 municipalities in the country.
The monitoring revealed there is no uniform for the management or delivery of free meal service in the country, therefore, no amount or calories of food to be served, no mandatory requirements relating to the arrangement of physical environment, safety or sanitary-hygienic conditions, are defined by the relevant standards.
The monitoring also revealed the nutrition needs of the beneficiaries were not considered when implementing the service and the ration mainly depends on the amount of money allocated from the state budget.
The report also said the small amount of money allocated for soup kitchens was “especially noticeable” in the Tbilisi municipality, where the amount per beneficiary is ₾1.30 (about $0.47), which is less than the daily amount per beneficiary in the regions.
Location of soup kitchens was also mentioned as one of the main problems for beneficiaries.
Soup kitchens are usually located in the administrative centres and beneficiaries living in the remote villages have to travel long distances to receive the services. For example, the beneficiaries living in the farthest village in the Baghdati municipality have to travel about 30 km daily to use the free meal service.
Read the full report here.
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