Voedselbanken

Food-banks have been a hotly debated issue in the last Parliamentary elections in the Netherlands. How is it that in such a rich country (look up the statistics at the OECD or European Union: Holland has regained her place among the richer countries in Europe..) so many families depend on food-aid supplied by these "voedselbanken" (food-banks)? Well. That is a good point.
As usual, the plot is a little bit thicker than the easy but slightly too long headline "Foodbanks show anti-social effects of evil right-wing/christian coalition government policies". The facts are that foodbanks started out as a supply-driven phenomenon: they are here because people wondered if nothing useful could be done with the nearly out-of-date supplies food retailers wanted to get rid of. In this light foodbanks should be seen as a sign of excess, of somewhat sub-optimal planning, not of poverty.
We cite
"In maart 2003 is de Stichting Voedselbank Nederland opgericht. Deze stichting
kwam voort uit een project van de Stichting MinusPlus, die in 1999 is
opgericht. Het idee van deze laatstgenoemde stichting was om de minderbedeelden
in onze samenleving te laten profiteren van de restgoederen van de
beter bedeelden. Bij leveranciers verzamelt voedselbank Nederland volwaardige
goederen die om welke reden dan ook niet in de winkel terechtkomen
maar zullen worden vernietigd."
http://docs.szw.nl/pdf/129/2006/129_2006_3_8743.pdf
And babelfish translates (atrociously):
"n March 2003 the foundation food bank the Netherlands has been set up. This foundation originated from a project of the foundation MinusPlus, which has been set up in 1999. The idea of this last mentioned let profit foundation was to the minderbedeelden in our society of rest goods of the better bedeelden. At suppliers food bank collects the Netherlands full goods which do not arrive for any reason whatsoever in the shop but will be destroyed."
Minderbedeelden = those that received less (literal translation, a nice way to say: the poor)