Hunger is usually associated with developing countries and not with places like Germany However even in a wealthy country like Germany there are many who live in desperation At the same time the country wastes approximately 20 percent of all its foodstuffs Bread that was baked the previous day dairy products that are about to expire and fruits and vegetables with small blemishes are normally taken off supermarket shelves and thrown away this happens even though the food is in perfectly good condition for consumption
social worker sabine werth saw this waste and started the Breliner Tafel (table) organization in 1993 in order to dive the food to those who needed it The problem was collecting all the food which also included "remains" from parties and buffets and distributing it to needy men women and children sabine organized groups of volunteers with cars and vans to do this work at first the Berliner tafel provided food only for homeless people but nowadays anybody in need can pick up a bag of groceries for a low price-the symbolic price of one euro Today Berliner Tafel feeds up to 15000 needy people a day and there are approximately 800 food banks all over Germany