Food Bank tests Utena’s readiness for crises and drone attacks

The Food Bank charity tested its ability to distribute food during a crisis and respond to a drone attack in Utena, LRT reports.

More than 100 volunteers took part in the exercise. They unloaded and counted donated products, sorted them into bags and prepared food packages for collection at a distribution point.

Another volunteer team prepared 200 portions of hot food in 90 minutes for those participating in the exercise.

The scenario involved unrest in Latvia, prompting around 2,000 people to be brought to Utena. Up to 800 of them could have needed food assistance. In the exercise, however, the people collecting the packages were Utena residents experiencing food shortages. They were notified by text message that the packages were ready.

Food Bank director Simonas Gurevičius said the organisation would not be able to provide long-lasting food products to large numbers of people at the same time during a major crisis. He said the exercise was intended to highlight the need to maintain supplies of food with a long shelf life.

The exercise also included situations that had not been disclosed to participants in advance. During one drill, an announcement warned of an air threat caused by a drone and instructed everyone to move immediately to the nearest safe place or shelter.

Some residents calmly went to a shelter in the cultural centre. Others said they could not use the stairs because they were elderly or had mobility difficulties. Some refused to go, saying they would have responded differently if the threat had been real.

Utena residents have already been ordered to seek shelter this year after a drone entered the area. A crashed unmanned aircraft was also found in Utena District several months ago.

Paulius Čyvas, director of the Utena District Municipality administration, said those incidents had created uncertainty and showed the need for such exercises. He said the municipality would have to consider allocating funds for food reserves in case disruptions affected the supply of food.

Under current legislation, municipalities must begin providing residents with food from the fourth to the sixth day after an emergency or threat arises.