Food-boxes will be distributed to supermarkets around the country as part of a National Food Drive to help those in need.

The initiative is being run by Green Skip Services, a waste management company, with the support of the Malta Community Chest Fund.

Company director Mary Gaerty said the drive aimed to consolidate and support food-collection projects already carried out by various NGOs, as well as collection baskets already in place at a number of supermarkets.

Partner NGOs include the Foodbank Foundation, the St Jeanne Antide Foundation, the Millenium Chapel, Ursuline Homes, Caritas and SOS Malta, which will be distributing the collected food along with the Community Chest fund.

The food drive will begin with 16 collection boxes before expanding further.

“Every supermarket and shop in Malta and Gozo should have one of these containers to collect as much food as possible and help as many people as we can,” Ms Gaerty said.

President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who presided over the initiative’s launch at San Anton Palace, praised the collaboration between different NGOs underpinning the project.

Ms Coleiro Preca said the initiative would see Malta unite with the rest of the world in continuing measures to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and encouraged shoppers to support the efforts by donating items whenever they visited the supermarket.