Vice President of Cabildo de Gran Canaria agrees to directly assist in funding The Food Project in Arguineguín

The vice president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Miguel Ángel Pérez del Pino, met on Tuesday with Artemi Artiles, spokesman for the PSOE of Mogán and Jenni Hymoff, president of the Neighbours Association of Las Lomas del Barranco de Arguineguín, who among their projects are perhaps best known for organising The Food Project, in Arguineguín. At the meeting they analysed the difficult situation that many families throughout the municipality are going through and agreed on ways of collaborating to promote help to those who need it most, and ways to continue funding The Food Project, as reported by Pérez del Pino on his personal social network pages.

He also stated that, “The support and help provided by the Third Sector is fundamental. We are at a time when all of us must be at one: no one is left behind.”

The vice president of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria approved the processing of an annual subsidy, for about €60,000 to promote this charitable endeavour to help in funding The Food Project, run by the Association in collaboration with the Food Bank and the European Union. A project that has been helping families for 12 years, and that the Mogán Town Council, headed by the controversial CIUCA party Mayor Bueno, decided to evict from their municipal premises back in October 2020. Hunger strikers very publicly protested throughout the first 17 days of October, catching the attention of the press, the Cabildo, and representatives of various opposition parties. More than 1200 signatures were collected, and island government officials, including regional minister for Social Rights, Noemi Santana, all agreed to look into solutions.  The eviction went ahead anyway, on October 17, The UN Day for the eradication of poverty.

Regardless of the incomprehensible decision by Mogán’s publicly elected administration, based on demonstrably false accusations from the mayor and her councillor for social services, Tanya Alonso, the Food Project managed to re-establish their service, by obtaining a private rented location, using donations, loans and their own funds, to continue to help poverty-stricken families in Mogán, during arguably the worst economic crisis in a generation, by distributing food from the European Union, the Food Bank of Las Palmas and private donations from within the community.

At present, only the Town Council’s own social aid, currently overwhelmed and oversaturated by the avalanche of people seeking assistance, with waiting lists for urgent help in excess of 3 weeks for an appointment, and The Food Project themselves are the entities that families can go to during the current crisis when they need direct assistance to put food on the table..

Mogán Social Services and Town Hall have been unavailable for comment.

 

“The support and help provided by the Third Sector is critical. We meet at a time when we all and all should be one: no one gets left behind.

Today, I held a meeting with Jenni Hymoff, President of the A.V. Las Lomas de Arguineguín, alongside PSOE Secretary General in Mogan, Julian Artemi Artiles Moraleda.

Together, we have analysed the difficult situation that many families in the municipality are going through and we have agreed to collaborate ways to boost their help to those who need it most.

The food delivery project from the municipal local where they were doing their activity should never have been evicted.
All aid must add to alleviate the effects of the health and social crisis that we are experiencing, so I consider that the third sector should have a complementary role to the administration’s action.
In this line I will continue to provide whatever is in my power to reverse what I consider a bad decision of the government group at Mogan City Hall.