Hundreds of kilos of food that should have gone to the homes of needy families ended up this Tuesday in garbage containers in Playa Blanca. In total, several dozen boxes of pasta and rice that come from the food bank and that, in theory, should be under the custody of the Yaiza City Council.
As can be seen in the boxes themselves, the food came from the 2013 Plan for Food Aid to the Most Needy People of the European Union. These foods are distributed through the Ministry of Agriculture and delivered to the municipalities for distribution through their Social Services departments. However, the councilor of this area in Yaiza, José Antonio Rodríguez, has stated to La Voz that he was unaware of this situation.
"As far as I know, there is no record of food being thrown away. The little food we have, we distribute. The City Council is not here to throw things away," said the mayor, even pointing to the possibility that the food that ended up in the containers belonged to some food company near that area, located next to the Yaiza Garden. However, the labels on the packaging clearly state that these are products from the European Union aid plan and that their sale "is prohibited".
Outrage among residents
During the afternoon of this Tuesday, different residents have contacted La Voz de Lanzarote to denounce this situation, witnessing how several people were heading to the containers with two carts loaded with boxes of food. As can be seen in the images, at least some of the food was not expired (some expired in 2016 and others even in 2017). However, the very poor condition of some batches is observed. For example, in one of the containers you can see macaroni covered with a whitish layer and even moth-eaten.
In addition, when getting rid of the boxes, they have taken a good part of the food out of its packaging, so the containers have been filled with loose pasta and rice grains, which have also ended up falling to the ground. A neighbor has even reported the events to the Civil Guard, so a couple of agents have traveled to the area to draw up a report of what happened.
"They can't throw the food in a container"
"Even if the batches had been damaged, the food cannot be thrown in a container," sources from the Red Cross, which also delivers food to some municipalities for distribution among needy families, have explained to La Voz. According to this NGO, in these cases you should contact an approved company and take the boxes directly to the Zonzamas landfill, recording how much food is being thrown away and what the reason was.
For his part, one of the residents who has contacted La Voz to show his outrage has directly blamed the City Council for what happened. "If the food is expired, it is because they have not distributed it on time. And if it is because it has bugs, well, the same," he argues, questioning what type of maintenance has been given to those foods.
