‘No foreigners accepted’: The food bank that turns away non-Germans
23/02/2018
Some foreigners were deterring German clients at one food bank in Essen, according to organisers. Now they have introduced a strict ‘Germans only’ rule.
Has solidarity got limits? It does at one food bank in west Germany’s town of Essen, where only newcomers presenting a German ID card will receive food. Such was the recent decision of the management, sparking a wave of criticism.
“We want German grandmothers to keep coming to us,” Jörg Sartor told a local paper. He heads the facility in Essen which is part of Tafel Deutschland, a nationwide charitable association providing free meals for the poor at 930 food banks. So far, it is the only facility to have introduced the measure.
On its website the food bank said 75 percent of its clients were foreigners at its peak; the fall out of the steep rise in asylum seekers over recent years. It said it found itself “forced” to introduce the measure “in order to ensure reasonable integration.”
