Blue Planet – The catch-up program can give hope to disadvantaged settlements

János Áder logged in from the FeteKert store located in the Fény Street market in Budapest in his latest episode. The former President of the Republic, together with his interlocutor Miklós Vecsei, the Prime Minister’s Commissioner responsible for the implementation of the diagnosis-based catch-up strategy and the Vice President of the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, presented the FeteKert initiative, which is part of the Catch-up Settlements program, hence its name, the Catch-up Settlements Garden. Miklós Vecsei presented the automated store, which can be accessed via an app in the Fény Street market.

According to the Prime Minister’s Commissioner, the meaning of the initiative should not be sought in Budapest, but in disadvantaged settlements.

Experience has shown that a village of 300-400 people can no longer support a shop. The shop located on Fény Street Market has a counterpart in Téseny, Baranya County, the aim being to reduce the usury of food there and the resulting high prices.

János Áder drew attention to the fact that the catch-up program also has a precedent, as people living in disadvantaged settlements first had to be brought back into the world of work, taught farming and then trade so that they could sell their products.

This was successful, and it has now been proven that these people can produce premium quality goods, which residents of the capital can buy in the Budapest store, while the products provided by the multi-companies joining the program – mainly basic foodstuffs – can be purchased by the residents of Téseny at artificially low prices. The initiative currently affects three hundred settlements.

The Fény Street store is fully automated, there is no server, no cash register, the customer takes the desired product off the shelf, and when leaving, the system deducts the amount from their account via the application, and then sends the digital receipt. According to Miklós Vecsei, the initiative is becoming increasingly popular among those who understand the essence of cost optimization.

The Prime Minister’s Commissioner believed that the disadvantaged settlements are not saved by the FeteKert system, but by proving that the people living there are able to produce value and be present in the market.

He said that if consumers are told where high-quality products are made, it is worth more than saying that disadvantaged settlements inhabited by Roma can be saved.

The program began five years ago and aims to improve the quality of life of the next generations. The producers of the products are Roma, whose children are still born into apartments without comfort. According to Miklós Vecsei, the welfare society belongs to these people, these children, whose fate, according to experience, is decided by the age of three, and who are mostly at a serious disadvantage compared to their peers of a similar age but born in more fortunate places.