News
Bulgarian Food Bank was legally incorporated as a non-profit public benefit organization
February 3
On 30th of January 2012 two civic organizations, five companies from the food industry and two companies from various business agreed over a common mission - the development of а efficiently functioning food bank to help hungry people, and legally incorporated the "Bulgarian Food Bank" Foundation.
Founders provided monetary and material donations for the Bulgarian Food Bank start up.
Although the legal establishment does not yet mean opening operations for daily donations of food the Bulgarian Food Bank is created with the goal to quickly develop capacity and infrastructure so that donated food can reach out to greater numbers of people in the country. The Food bank is established to serve as the connecting point between healthy food throughout the food industry and those who have no access to adequate nourishment.
"Bulgarian Food Bank" has been established as a result of the work of the Bulgarian Food Banking Planning Forum. Within the Forum a consensus for the benefits of the system for the entire society was made among the public, business and civil sector. The concept of establishment, organization al structure and key strategies of" Bulgarian Food Bank" Foundation has been discussed and consolidated between more than40 governmental, business and civil organizations.
The organization has been established as an autonomous, legally independent organization in public benefit with a primary objective collection and management of donated food in accordance with all safety standards and providing long-term and year round nutritional support to a wide range of people.
Founders of "Bulgarian Food Bank" Foundation as a legal non-profit entity are:
•Bulgarian Association of Meet Processors ;
•Bella Bulgaria JSC;
•Bio Bulgaria Ltd. (Harmonika);
•Kraft Foods Inc.;
•Neterra SPLTD;
•Piccadilly JSC (Delhaize Group);
•Road Runner SPLTD (BG Menu);
•Tandem-V Ltd.;
•FORA – Community Development Foundation
The founders invited and elected nine members to serve in Board of "Bulgarian Food Bank" with professional experience and position in areas of importance for the functioning of the foundation. The Board of Directors includes: Antoine Collette, Dominic Hamers, Methody Methodieff, Vladi Davtchev, Lyubomir Nokov, Dr. Slavita Djambazova, Eng. Angelin Angelov, Kiril Vatev and Paul Tobin.
Antoine Collette, CEO of Kraft Foods Inc Bulgaria will serve as the first Chairman of the Board. The position will rotate.
For Executive Director and representative of "Bulgarian Food Bank”, the founder selected Marina Brakalova from FORA Foundation who has managed the assessment and planning stage of the Food banking Planning Forum
Main partner for creating necessary conditions for launching and functioning of the "Bulgarian Food Bank" is The Bulgarian Food Safety Agency.
The actual start of every day operations and optimal progress of the food bank depends on ensuring support for development of infrastructure; providing resources; introducing a package of measures to decrease the cost for the business when donating of edible products and services to the Food Bank.
In the begging of March 2012 after legal registration of the Foundation a press conference will be held by the founders and partners of the "Bulgarian Food Bank" to introduce the forthcoming and necessary steps to develop full operations.
All participants in the Bulgarian Food banking Planning Forum have contributed significantly for the establishment of the Bulgarian Food Bank as an official organization. A significant contribution in the process has been made by Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, PricewaterhouseCoopers Audit, Schoenherr Law Firm, American Chamber of Commerce, Danone Serdika, Sodexo, Billa, Nestle, Bulgarian Red Cross, Caritas, National Network for Children, Bulgarian Charity Aid Foundation, etc. Their partnership with “Bulgarian Food Bank” will continue in the future.