 Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Katie Blake. And I'm Bruce Gulland. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live. Charlotte was 21 years old. She was a student in the United Kingdom. And she had very little money. She had grown up without a family. Now she was struggling. She was trying to get an education. She attended school during the day. And she worked at night. But then she lost her job. To survive, Charlotte sold everything she owned. For days she ate very little food. She was becoming sick. Finally she looked for help. Someone in her local government told her about food banks. She learned that at a food bank she could get food for free. Food is one of the most basic human needs. But around the world there are many people like Charlotte who do not have enough food. In some communities food banks meet this basic need. Today's Spotlight is on food banks. Food banks are non-profit organisations. They collect and store food to give to people who need it. All of the food at a food bank is donated. Individual people give food or money to support the food bank. Farms may also give food that they cannot sell. And food companies may do the same thing. This food may be damaged a little bit. Or it may be a kind of food that people did not want to buy. At the food bank, workers sort the food and inspect it to make sure that it is safe to eat. Then the food bank gives the food to people who need it. In countries around the world there is a great need for food banks. The European Federation of Food Banks is an organisation of food banks in Europe. It says that in 2012 European food banks gave away 388,000 tonnes of food. That is about 776 million meals. In the United States there is a similar situation. Feeding America is the largest food bank organisation in that country. In 2010 Feeding America studied how many people they helped. The study showed that Feeding America provided food to about 37 million people that year. In South Africa the organisation Food Bank South Africa has been working since 2009. Food Bank SA gives away food in two ways. First they give food to local organisations across the country. These local organisations give food to people in their area that need it. At the same time these organisations offer other kinds of help. Cordelia Wonoway is one woman who gets food from Food Bank SA. She cares for 11 children. These children are poor and they do not have any other family. She told the SABC news organisation They helped me so much. I get bread, vegetables and rice three times a week. But Food Bank SA also gives food in another way. Food Bank SA has restaurants. At normal restaurants people pay for other people to cook them a meal. This makes eating at a restaurant more expensive than cooking at home. But Food Bank SA's restaurants are not like normal restaurants. At the Food Bank SA restaurants people pay very little money even less than the cost of the food. However they get a complete meal including meat and vegetables. These restaurants are open five days each week. In 2013 Food Bank SA provided more than 220,000 meals each month. The idea for Food Bank SA's restaurants came from Brazil. In Brazil the government runs restaurants too. These restaurants started after Lula da Silva became the president in 2003. Lula da Silva started many programs to end poverty. One of these programs was called Zero Hunger. Zero Hunger opened simple restaurants. Anyone was welcome in these restaurants. But the cost was very small. The restaurants offer good healthy food three times a day. And they are very popular. Carlos Enrique Siqueira is the manager of one of the restaurants. He told the radio program Marketplace This program is necessary because of the ups and downs of the economy. One day I may need this if I am unemployed. Tomorrow you may need it. Remember Charlotte's story from the beginning of the program. The food banks in Charlotte's community are operated by a large national organisation. But local Christian churches support them. And the workers are all volunteers. They are not paid for their work. The food banks operate like a store. But people do not pay for the food. Instead people use a special piece of paper called a voucher. To get a voucher a person must talk to a doctor or social worker. These experts decide whether a person needs the food bank. This system prevents fraud and corruption. It stops people who do not need the food from taking it. At first Charlotte was not sure that she wanted to go to a food bank. She felt shame. She worried that people would judge her. She wondered what if people see me go into or return home from the food bank. Would they recognise that I am poor and need food? But finally she decided to go. And she found that it was much better than she expected. Workers at the local food bank did not tell anyone that she had visited the food bank. And they put her food in normal food bags. So people would not know Charlotte had received her food from the food bank. Charlotte was thankful. The local food bank had helped her through the crisis. The food bank had a big effect on Charlotte. So she decided to help too. She began working there as a volunteer. The food bank did not pay her for this work. But she enjoyed helping other people. Then something surprising happened. The organisation that operates the food bank asked Charlotte to tell her experiences on a national radio programme. She agreed. Now she did not feel shame about her experience. Instead she was happy to tell other people about this important part of her community. There is an English expression. There is no such thing as a free meal. This means that a person always has to pay something for a meal. Money, time or respect. But with food banks this is not true. Food banks offer food to people who really need it. And with that food, food banks offer a chance for a person's life to change. The writer of this programme was Michael Coleman. The producer was Luke Haley. The voices you heard were from the United States and the United Kingdom. All quotes were adapted for this programme and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this programme again and read it on the internet at www.radioenglish.net This programme is called Food Banks, Food and Hope. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight programme. Goodbye.