Food crisis greatest threat to Brazil poor – Irish missionary

Poor families are struggling to buy food as prices rise “astronomically” and Brazil’s Covid-19 crisis worsens, according to an Irish Spiritan based there.

Fr Brendan Foley, the Superior of the Brazil South-West Province and parish priest in Perus, São Paulo told this paper that in response to the increase in food prices they opened a food bank which caters to the local community.

“Food prices are rising astronomically so our response to that for the local community was to open up a food bank with private donations from Ireland from Spiritan colleges, in doing so they were able to distribute monthly food parcels,” he said.

“People have donated to it so it has created a sense of solidarity. People who are educated and I would have considered having stable jobs are knocking on the door asking for food. It just shocks me. What is shocking is the slow wearing down of people spiritually and mentally.”

In his parish, Fr Foley says he lives in an area of extreme deprivation with many slum settlements known as favelas. “They live in this milieu of a situation of trying to provide the best that they can, first the security, construction of houses, to find work at any cost and to find a sense of protection through health and education. They are in search of hope,” he said.

Fr Foley criticised Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, saying he is “throwing out perverse politics that does nothing to help the poor of Brazil”.

“The symptom of that is that Covid has highlighted these weaknesses within Brazilian society and politics,” he added.

“Even the odd jobs are hard to come by during Covid, so having a steady income this last year has proven very difficult. Having the threat always of Covid-19 – between infections and deaths – is a very real threat here in the parish, the greatest threat for the poorest is not having food on the table and not having a job to provide that food and home and place and space, so there’s a lot of vulnerability being experienced.”