In Italy, almost 3 million people have been forced to ask for help to eat with the delivery of food parcels as a gift or in charity canteens spread throughout the Peninsula. This is what emerges from Coldiretti's analysis of data from the 2022 report of the Fund for European Aid to the Poor, which shows an increase of 12% of the poor in Italy in the last year, released on the Sixth World Day of the Poor, established by Pope Francis. An unprecedented social emergency since the post-war period, caused by the deadly mix of Covid and the energy crisis, whose dramatic nature is evidenced by the fact that the number of children under 15 years of age in need of assistance to feed themselves have exceeded 600 thousand, practically 1/5 of the total number of people assisted, to which 337 thousand elderly people over 65 years of age, and 687 thousand foreign migrants, are added. Among the new poor there are also those who have lost their jobs, small traders or craftsmen who have had to close, people employed in the underground who do not benefit from subsidies or public aid and do not have savings set aside, as well as many temporary workers or those with activities affected by the measures against the Covid pandemic and the jump in energy costs.
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