Food for Thought

Several theatres in Fortaleza, as well as the Ceará Film Festival, have hit on an ingenious idea, which is actually doing some good. Seats for certain performances are very cheap — or even free, in cash terms — except that everyone in the audience must bring with them one kilo of non-perishable food. Rice, beans, canned goods — that sort of thing. Sizeable quantities of foodstuffs are thereby quickly accumulated and later distrbuted to needy families. There is no lack of potential recipients. An estimated 800,000 people live in the favelas or slums around the city, on top of which there are hundreds of homeless kids who somehow survive in the city centre, sleeping in petrol station forecourts or other locations where they feel relatively safe. The current government has introduced welfare schemes that help literally millions of poor Brazilians, but countless others fall through the net. Which is why charitable activity is still needed. And what more painless way than through a sort of humanitarian tax on one’s cultural pleasures?