What Is the Civil Award?

The Civil Award is a professional recognition established by NIOK (Nonprofit Information and Education Center Foundation), which has been presented in Hungary for the past four years. This year, 118 applications were submitted for the award. Various civil society organizations were able to submit their current flagship projects for consideration by the professional jury. The jury awarded prizes in eight categories, while the ninth award was decided by readers through a public vote on Nők Lapja Café, who selected one organization to receive it.

Food Aid for the Poor Takes Center Stage

Our Food for Life Foundation has been participating in the Civil Award competition for years. This year, we submitted an application for our rural food distribution program called „Like a Bite of Bread,” which aims to reach those in need in as many small and large communities as possible—beyond our regular distribution points—by providing either hot meals or non-perishable food items. To this end, we strive to identify rural communities where there is a need for our work and to establish contact with organizations that are in touch with the segment of the local population most in need of our support. By working together with other nonprofit organizations and social service agencies, we are able to reach the most disadvantaged groups, whether they are in temporary family shelters, residential facilities for people with disabilities, or other locations.

Since the program’s inception, it has been led by Zsuzsanna Kollár, Sudamani devi dasi, who, in addition to working full-time in healthcare, devotes all her free time to this service—from organizational tasks to hands-on participation in food distribution.

Once again, our application made it to the second round—among the finalists—and we finished in the top 4 in the „Project with the Greatest Impact” category. That is why we attended the Civil Award gala, where the chair and spokesperson of our foundation’s board of trustees represented us.

Creative Civic Energy

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your votes and for all the encouragement you’ve given us throughout this competition. We feel that every participant in the Civil Award is a true winner, just as are the people who benefit from the services and work of these organizations. We’ve had the opportunity to learn about fantastic projects and meet true civic heroes. We are proud to live in such a diverse and creative civil society!

More about the award: www.civildij.hu