In September 2026, about 200 people held empty plates at a Brussels protest over food insecurity in Belgium. Organisers said roughly 500,000 people depended on food aid. The director of the Belgian Restos du Cœur federation described the direct queue: people were waiting longer and longer for food parcels and meals that were becoming smaller.
The organisation’s twenty-one centres distributed 1,569,180 meals and parcels in 2025, an increase of 134 per cent over six years. Meanwhile, organisers said the federal budget for basic goods fell from €27 million in 2025 to €15 million in 2026. The length of this line does not signal abundance. More people are waiting while the package at the end is shrinking, making pressure on the support system visible in the most literal way.