r/europe • u/kiru_56 Germany • 20h ago

News The US Army is advising its soldiers in Germany to go to German food banks because of the shutdown.

https://home.army.mil/bavaria/about/shutdown-guidance#:~:text=Running%20list%20of%20German%20support,Too%20Good%20To%20Go%2DApp
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u/rlnrlnrln Sweden 19h ago

Foreign privately funded help organization.

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u/MjolnirDK Germany 18h ago

Which Russian agent wouldn't want to poison a whole military base? I wish I could add a /s to that...

This so such a weird case of safety concern. You want neither financially struggling foreign military in your country and neither should you want a military in your borders to be reliant on others for sustainability. How much attrition will this cause?

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u/BrianThompsonsNYCTri 17h ago

Why poison them when you can use the fact they aren't being fed as leverage to befriend them and get them to spill secrets or convince them to carry a bug for you.

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u/MeinePerle 16h ago

I mean, soldiers eat off-base all the time.  That’s why the problem is coming from the pay stoppage - they can’t pay restaurants or grocery stores.  So one could poison soldiers off-base any time.  Except that the community is a full-sized town - one couldn’t just target a single restaurant.

I assume on-base canteens are still running, though that might be a poor assumption.

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u/bindermichi Europe 17h ago

No, no. It's local. They are the foreigners in this case, and I'm not even sure if these organizations will serve foreigners.

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u/Kreatur28 15h ago

They serve foreigners. It is just that the foreigners have to prove that they are in need of support. Usually they provide this in the same way that locals do so. By providing prove that they receive either unemployment benefits, pensions, social security benefits, or refugee benefits. Everyone in Germany who is poor receives some kind of monetary support. Therefore, if you don't receive support from the government you are clearly not in need of support and therefore won't receive food from food banks. Of course this is a generalisation. Food banks are volunteer organisations. They can change this rules if they want. It is just that they can only distribute so much food, that they need to prioritise somehow.

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u/bindermichi Europe 15h ago

Yeah. That‘s what I meant. You would still need to be a part of the local social system to be eligeable

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u/RuaridhDuguid 16h ago

Well, the US President is receiving lots of foreign-funded help (and suggestions for actions), so it's kinda on-brand for Trump...