A charity that sources food destined for the rubbish bin and redistributes it to the poor will soon start operating from Ħamrun.

The initiative has been made possible following the donation of storage space by the Church, namely a former food store at Dar Fra Diegu.

The charity, the Malta Foodbank Foundation, started taking shape seven years ago, its president Irene Schembri told The Sunday Times of Malta. It is affiliated with the European Food Bank Federation (EFBF), which alleviates hunger by redistributing food surplus.

The Archdiocese of Malta is carrying out structural works at the property and the foundation will provide the equipment, such as shelving and machinery. The project will be run by volunteers from the foundation.

Every year, 88 million tons of food are wasted in Europe. At the same time, 42 million people cannot afford a quality meal every second day.

With poverty prevalent across Europe, the European federation was established in 1986 to help reduce hunger and malnutrition by fighting food waste.

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The idea is for institutions, producers, retailers and individuals to donate food to nearly 400 food banks and branches across 28 European countries. The food is sorted and stored in warehouses and then distributed to NGOs.

The sourced food is perfectly edible and safe but cannot be sold due to various reasons, such as an error on the packaging or a short expiry date, the federation’s general secretary, Angela Frigo, said.

In this manner, NGOs do not need to invest their energy in actually looking for food but can focus on helping people they assist to get back on their feet.

The initiative also serves an environmental purpose.

It is estimated that 120 million people live at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Europe and about eight per cent of the population suffer from severe material deprivation, said Ms Frigo.

While poverty was in the past predominantly linked to migrants and third-country nationals, it is nowadays prevalent across the whole region – your next door neighbour could become poor overnight, she said.

The agreement between the Church and the European federation was signed on Saturday.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi said this was another project through which the Church was responding “in a tangible manner to the reality of poverty in Malta”. 

Ms Schembri said the service offered by the food bank would follow the teachings of Pope Francis, who says the culture of waste has made us insensitive towards throwing out excess food, “which is especially condemnable when, in every part of the world, many people suffer hunger and malnutrition”. 

In 2017, EFBF food banks:

▪ Provided food to 8.1 million most deprived people
▪ Redistributed 756,000 tons equivalent to 4.1 million meals each day
▪ Acted through 44,700 partner charities

Interested in donating food to help this new initiative? Send an email to foodbankmalta@gmail.com