The clock tower in Vittoriosa, another of the six beneficiaries.

Six community projects, ranging from a soup kitchen and a genetic study to restoration works, will be taken up through a €600,000 donation from the Alfred Mizzi Foundation.

The projects form part of the centenary celebrations of Alf. Mizzi & Sons Ltd Group.

Three of them are large scale. The creation of Malta’s first soup kitchen will be aimed at helping people in need. Talks are underway with voluntary groups to set up some form of partnership, said Julian Sammut, a foundation trustee. Another major project will be the establishment of a nationwide study on the local population’s genetic predisposition to diabetes and obesity.

The third big undertaking will be the rebuilding of the clock tower in Vittoriosa. Funds will also be used to help heritage organisation Din l-Art Ħelwa with the restoration of five altars in the Our Lady of Victories Church in Valletta and the restoration of the altar and titular painting in the Immaculate Conception Church in St Julian’s.

The sixth project will be carried out in partnership with the Notarial Archives Resources Council, to ‘Adopt a Notary’. This will be a sponsorship scheme through which the foundation will contribute to preserving the invaluable range of accomplishments of Notary Bartholomeo Selvagii de Via, whose volumes span from 1531 to 1551.

Mr Sammut said the foundation had sought out initiatives which it felt would make a significant difference to Maltese society. The projects all fall in line with the foundation’s guiding principles of national heritage, education and social solidarity.

The projects all fall in line with the foundation’s guiding principles of heritage,education and social solidarity

The work connected with the sponsorship of these projects would be coordinated by the foundation trustees. The foundation was set up in 2005 to manage and oversee all the Alf. Mizzi & Sons Ltd Group’s corporate social responsibility projects in close association with NGOs and other entities.

A number of projects have already begun, while others will receive a kick-start with the funds.

The restoration work at the Immaculate Conception chapel will soon reach the end of its three-year programme, while the sponsorship of the works on Our Lady of Victory Church, which has been going on for five years, will be substantially renewed.

The Alliance Against Poverty welcomed the soup kitchen initiative, saying said any steps to help those who were going through financial difficulties should be encouraged.