The numbers in Viterbo’s budget are alarming with Love, President Arruzzolo: «The Emporium assists 500 people»

Poverty, exponential growth in Viterbo and its province: in six years the number of families assisted by the solidarity emporium has gone from 30 to 300, with peaks of over 500 cards last year. In total, almost 900 families have received support: 2,467 people fed with shopping points, the equivalent of the population of a town in Tuscia. The numbers contained in the latest social budget of Viterbo con Amore presented yesterday morning at the Youth Space, a new structure connected to the minimarket run by volunteers in Santa Barbara, are impressive. «There are two main data – explains the president Domenico Arruzzolo – the first is that poverty is not decreasing in Viterbo; the second, even more dramatic, is that there is a poverty affecting young people that is not perceived. It is a relational and educational poverty that prevents those who live in these families from enjoying the same opportunities that their peers have.”

Last year’s numbers: «508 families came to us from all over the province, of which 392 were residents in the municipality of Viterbo and surrounding areas, the remainder from 29 neighboring municipalities. The Italian-foreigner ratio is 50-50. In 2023 the trend was still growing, with a peak from July which coincides with the end of the citizen’s income”. Another alarming fact: «70 percent of families ask for help again a year later. I often say that poverty is like a disease that is difficult to eradicate: it is difficult for a family that finds itself in a state of poverty to emerge from it.” In the capital, the highest number of assisted people live in the historic centre, 66 families. Followed by Carmine, Pianoscarano, San Pietro (52); Cappuccini, Murialdo (38); Pilastro, Riello, Palazzina (35). More than 50 percent of users arrive at the emporium through word of mouth, then from social services and parishes. Not just free shopping. To combat poverty among young people, the emporium has launched a series of wide-ranging projects: “Thanks to the emporium, 64 kids play sports, 12 do after-school activities, and at the beginning of the year we distributed 150 school kits.” Worth noting is the boom in requests to join from new volunteers: it grew from 40 to 64 in one year. And the success of some new initiatives such as the one against food waste: seven thousand kilos of bread and 13 thousand of fruit and vegetables recovered. «2023 was the year of awareness: that of having fully become a reliable and qualified resource for the fight against poverty».

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