Local companies launched an aid project with the Food Bank

Valga Puu, a forest company belonging to the Graanul Invest group, supports the food banks of Põlva, Võru, and Valga counties to help families in need that live in rural areas. The food packages to be distributed in the aid project have been put together in cooperation with local food producers.

Valga Puu supports the project with 60,000 euros, which, for four months, will enable the Food Bank to offer local food products to large families, people with disabilities, and other people in need.

According to Kairit Numa, coordinator of the Põlva food bank, an agreement was reached with Valga Puu pursuant to which the food products included in aid packages will be bought only from local producers to provide people with quality food and also support small businesses. According to Numa, local producers were quick to join the project and worked hard to achieve the best results.

According to Andres Olesk, Head of Valga Puu, one of the goals of the initiative is to provide support to each other during the Covid-19 crisis. He added that in Estonia rural life is supported by two main business fields – agriculture and forestry – which now jointly began to help those in need. ‘Supporting the local community and small producers is important to us and we do it whenever possible,’ said Andres Olesk.

Pursuant to the agreement concluded with Valga Puu, the food banks of the three counties are to receive 5,000 euros per month in support. According to Numa, this is a lot of money for food banks. ‘We usually receive small donations and we have never had the opportunity to buy food with support money,’ said Numa.

The first food packages have already reached those in need, and according to Kairit Numa, the feedback has been extremely positive. Joint procurements were submitted to local producers and the aid packages that were distributed in Põlva, Võru, and Valga counties were essentially identical. In the first month, a total of 300 nine-kilogramme bags of food stuff were put together using the support money. The food producers which took part of the project include Nopri Talumeierei, Karni Lihatooted, Jaagumäe keskus, Sangaste Linnas, Aakre Moos, Muna Liisa, and many others.