July 11, 2014
The government has started distributing a second round of food packages for the nation’s poor, despite the very negative response to the first round late last year.
Each food package is to be worth 1.2 million rials (a little less than $40 at the current free market exchange rate).
To be eligible, a family must be registered with the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee or the State Welfare Organization.
Those groups cover about 7.5 million needy people or 10 percent of Iran’s population.
The food packages are to include meat, rice, eggs, dairy items, edible oils and cereal, among other foods.
The Rohani Administration made several distributions of similar food packages last winter, to generally uncomplimentary commentary. The immense lines that left people standing hours outdoors in the cold drew criticism as long as the lines.
Many in the Majlis complained that the government had used some imported foods in the packages.
Others complained that the occasional handouts of food neither provide permanent relief nor cure the underlying problem of poverty.