Alberto Fernández will re-launch the Table Against Hunger today, after several months of inactivity due to the Pandemic

It was born as one of the first initiatives of his government even a few days before he took office. Alberto Fernández devised at that time the Argentine Federal Council Against Hunger to promote food security and sovereignty policies to guarantee access to food for the most affected sectors of society. And shortly after his arrival at the Casa Rosada, the president held the first meeting with a wide call. Then the pandemic slowed down its actions and its evolution. Now the ruling party will try a kind of relaunch.

The President will lead today from 11:30 the first meeting of 2021 of the Federal Council together with the Minister of Social Development, Daniel Arroyo placeholder image, and the head of the National Council for the Coordination of Social Policies, Victoria Tolosa Paz, which will be held virtually from the Olivos residence. Representatives of social, religious, business and trade unions, among others, will also participate in the meeting.

There will be a report of the three commissions which were created in August 2020 with the aim of decentralizing work: Access to food, Quality and nutritional education and Production and marketing of food for food sovereignty. All are made up of officials from the Ministry of Social Development and representatives of academic sectors and referents of different social organizations, trade unions, the Church and business chambers.

The three commissions remained active during these months but for the first time they will make a presentation and a balance of their work in front of the president and the main persons in charge of the Council.

Minister Arroyo will also detail everything that has been done so far through his portfolio, especially with the Feed card and with the other social programs. Official sources reported that a more active intervention will be called for the famous people who were involved in this presidential initiative -Marcelo Tinelli and Narda Lepes, for example- with the aim of spreading the benefits of a better diet among the Argentine population.

The Federal Council had its last meeting on August 18 and there it was detailed that during the first year of management, the national government allocated -through Social Development- more than $ 121.6 billion to support and expand the Alimentar card and the module programs food, assistance to canteens, picnic areas and school canteens and Pro Huerta, among others.

People line up to get food in a community dining room.
 

The Alimentar Card works like any debit card and allows its holders to purchase food – except alcoholic beverages. The vast majority of its beneficiaries are mothers or fathers with sons and / or daughters up to 6 years of age who receive the Universal Child Allowance (AUH), pregnant from three months of gestation who receive the Pregnancy Allowance for Protection Social and people with disabilities who receive an allowance.

Starting this month -the payment will be made on Wednesday February 19- there will be a considerable increase in the amount to be received. Monthly, each Alimentar Card is credited with $ 4,000 for cardholders who have a son or daughter and $ 6,000 for cardholders with two or more children. In May and December, the amount credited to each card was doubled to improve purchasing power. Now, taking into account the strong increase in the prices of the food basket, $ 6000 and $ 9000 will be charged, respectively.

The total investment will be $ 93,355 million for the 1,567,751 cardholders, destined for 1,945,047 boys and girls, 45,710 pregnant women and 49,520 people with disabilities.

With regard to school canteens, with a government investment of $ 8,261 million that reaches more than 19,000 schools throughout the country, the school food system is supplemented with the acquisition of food rations -breakfasts, lunches or snacks- which, during the isolation, they adapted to food systems, through the transfer of funds to the provincial governments.

The aid also extended to picnic areas and community kitchens -through the Community Approach Program-, the distribution of bulk food among families in situations of extreme social vulnerability and the Prohuerta Program, which distributed inputs -seeds, fruit trees, farm animals and tools- and offers training and technical support to some 610 thousand family, school and community gardens.

During the last meeting of 2020, in addition to the balance drawn up by the officials that make up the Council, some critical voices were heard about the implementation of some of the programs it included. The former senator and former Minister of Social Development, Hilda “Chiche” Duhalde, had requested the unification of social plans and a few days later decided to abandon this so-called “Table Against Hunger.”