http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/15/us-portugal-crisis-food-idUSBRE98E05U20130915

(Reuters) - Spending cuts to European Union food aid programs could leave Portugal's growing ranks of poor with even emptier plates.

Western Europe's poorest country is likely to lose 40 percent of 20 million euros ($27 million) in food aid it gets from Brussels every year, according to Isabel Jonet, who heads the Food Banks charity.

Her institution supports 390,000 poor people out of Portugal's 10.5 million population. They have been helped by the EU "Food for the Needy" program but it is due to be replaced by the Fund for European Aid.

The new fund will have fewer resources for food, Jonet told Reuters. And the cash-strapped government has made no preparations to deal with the problem, she said.