Election brings no hope to Athens soup kitchens

Page last updated at 04:49 GMT, Friday, April 27, 2012 - 09:49 EST

Reuters:

Children wait in line to receive food at a soup kitchen for the poor in Athens April 24, 2012.

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Oblivious to their crumbling surroundings, they fill the pot with water and bring it to a simmer by the side of a busy road, stirring in pasta to feed those driven to poverty by Greece's debt crisis.

They are stepping in where the politicians have failed, they say, even though they, like one in five Greeks and half of all the nation's young people, are unemployed.

Every day, through an informal group they call "O Allos Anthropos", or The Fellow Man, they feed all comers - mostly immigrants and others without jobs - thanks to donations, whether from a pensioner handing over half a loaf or market vendors stumping up unsold vegetables.

A few blocks away, workers are building a stage to hold campaign rallies for the May 6 elections. The pasta crew shake their heads in scorn.

"Those who are running in the election will just be wasting money to make campaign posters. They should be ashamed of themselves," said Constantinos Polychronopoulos, 47, a jobless marketing man in a black apron, as he added zucchinis and onions to the mix.

"They have never gone hungry in their lives."

Read the whole story: Reuters