At 44 food points, 8,000 hot meals are distributed daily through the public kitchen service, and now they are preparing to sign a contract with the Cívis Social Dining Center and open a new quota of 2,000 people for social meals, if approved by the general assembly, deputy mayor Diána Széles announced on his social page.
The public kitchen service is free of charge, a bowl of food can be collected at the food points, the social kitchen service provides a daily menu with reimbursement fees adjusted to income.
At Monday’s press conference, mayor László Papp, deputy mayor Diána Széles and Zsolt Nagy, manager-director of the Cívis Social Dining Center, gave a briefing on the details at the István út food distribution point, which is also reported in the municipality’s announcement.
László Papp said the general meeting will soon decide on increasing the social catering quota to 2,000 people. This means that together with the public kitchen service and social catering, the city can provide adequate hot food for around 10,000 people every day.
László Papp emphasized that behind this activity there is government and local government support, and it is not campaign-like work, because this has been going on for years. There are political forces that sometimes organize food distribution “for the sake of the cameras”, but I emphasize that the municipality has been carrying out this activity continuously for a long time, for years, not as a campaign, the mayor confirmed.
There are currently 44 food points in the city, which network practically covers the entire area of Debrecen, and all those in need will continue to be able to access this social service within walking distance.
Deputy mayor Diána Széles said in relation to public kitchens and social catering that the working hours of some food distribution points could change from November 1 – for example, there may be points where the distribution of food used to be in the afternoon, but was moved to the morning. By the way, the Cívis Social Dining Center informed the visitors of the food points in advance about these changes.
However, the demand for this service is increasing, and that is why the city management decided to bring the expansion of the social catering system to the November 17 general meeting. As Diána Széles emphasized, the difference between the soup kitchen and social catering is that in the case of the soup kitchen service, a bowl of hot food is provided free of charge to any adult Hungarian citizen who requires it, with government support. In the context of social catering, on the other hand, you can choose a soup and a main course from the menu, which the service provider can deliver to your home on request, but you can also pick it up at the food points.
Social catering, on the other hand, is subject to payment, although it is very discounted. Even so, this is the cheapest catering service in the city. As the deputy mayor said, in addition to the quota increase for social catering, the general assembly will also decide on November 17 whether the municipality should raise the income limits for those who apply for municipal social assistance as permanent residents of Debrecen. There are many people whose income is only slightly higher than the current income limits. If that amendment is accepted by the general assembly, the range of people entitled to apply for city social assistance may be expanded.
Zsolt Nagy, the manager-director of the Cívis Social Dining Center, reported, among other things, that according to their statistics, the social kitchen service is typically used by the elderly with a monthly pension of between HUF 100 and HUF 200 thousand.
Soup and the main course delivered to the apartment cost HUF 520 gross.
debreceninap.hu
