Poor economy keeps Slovenian charities busy

Charitable organisations in Slovenia are getting busy as an increasing number of people living in poverty are forced to seek for free food and temporary shelters. Maribor, the second largest city in Slovenia, is battling against unemployment over 18 percent, and its municipality-operated kitchen feeds around 600 people each day, the Slovenian Press Agency reported on Monday. Some 388,000 euros (504,400 U.S. dollars) were earmarked for the public kitchen in the city last year. "The number of meals increased from 400 to 600 over the past years," Jozef Tivadar, director of social services in Maribor, was quoted as saying. Public kitchen in Celje, the third largest town in the country, has served about 160,000 free meals for the poor in 2013. In addition, a homeless shelter in the capital of Ljubljana offer free meal to 200 people. As people living on charity are on the rise, a new public kitchen is due to open in February, the report said.