Tartu Food Bank is facing financial hardship as voluntary funding from local governments has declined and no longer covers its fixed costs.
Tartu Food Bank serves the entire Tartu County region. According to Kerttu Olõkainen, project manager at the Estonian Food Bank, the system has long relied on support from local governments to cover operating expenses at the county level.
However, Tartu Food Bank is now struggling to cover its rent and utility bills this year and next, Olõkainen said: “These difficulties have arisen because everything has gotten more expensive and because local governments in Tartu County are no longer supporting us at the same level as before.”
As a result, the food bank has reached out to every municipality in Tartu County for financial assistance. For example, the city of Tartu made an exceptional, one-time allocation of €9,500 from its reserve fund this year to help cover the food bank’s facility costs for the second half of the year.
For 2025, the food bank has requested an additional €27,000 from the city to help cover rent and utilities. But that request puts the city in a difficult position, said Deputy Mayor Reno Laidre: “Tartu accounts for 39 percent of service volume in the region, but we’re being asked to cover 61 percent of the shortfall. That’s quite a significant gap and it’s going to be difficult to justify such a decision, even if it might be the right thing to do.”
Read more: ERR.EE
