Thousands of people queue for free food from Cretan farmers

Athens - The Cretan farmers organisation distributed 25 tonnes of vegetables free of charge to impoverished Athenians on Wednesday morning.

To Vima reported "a total of 2,700 packages were distributed" on Wednesday morning in Athens, each containing "ten kilos of vegetables from the greenhouses of the cooperative in East Ierapetra." Each package contained aubergines, cucumbers, tomatoes and paprikas. Recipients included pensioners, the unemployed, and immigrants. The president of the agricultural co-operative “Anatoli" said "We, farmers, send a message of solidarity to those Greeks who struggle to survive and cannot buy our products. We have the same problem and we have to help each other.” Athens Mayor Andreas Varelas said "Unfortunately, when talking about such a great city in a bad financial state initiatives like this are more symbolic." With the election of a coalition government led by New Democracy the people of Greece are bracing for more austerity measures to be introduced before the end of July, to comply with Troika conditions for an agreed bailout that has been delayed whilst Greece remained in limbo between elections.