[WATCH] Foodbank founder: Christmas has become a struggle for more people

Lifeline Foundation chair Reverend Kim Hurst tells MaltaToday how people can help the Valletta foodbank help others at Christmas

Reverend Kim Hurst: “Our clients are mainly Maltese, many of them working people, but for one reason or another find themselves in financial difficulties”. Photo: James Bianchi
Reverend Kim Hurst: “Our clients are mainly Maltese, many of them working people, but for one reason or another find themselves in financial difficulties”. Photo: James Bianchi

Christmas may be an occasion to indulge in food and gift-giving, but for some families in Malta, celebrations may not be as merry as others.

For people who already struggle to put food on the table regularly, Christmas is another added stress, that comes with expectations many simply cannot afford to meet.         

Reverend Kim Hurst, founder and chairperson at the Lifeline Foundation, told MaltaToday that helping those people was the very reason the Foodbank in Valletta was set up – after a member of her church saw an individual going through bins in Valletta back in 2015.  

“What they were doing was picking up fast food cartons that people had thrown away, to eat the food that people had left… and we thought if it had gotten to the stage where people were having to rummage through bins looking for food we needed to help. So we spoke with social workers and asked ‘Do you struggle to feed families sometimes?’ and they said ‘yes.’”  

Hurst said that when the Foodbank first started they were servicing 10 families per week. Over time the number has increased – now the Foodbank services 80 families per week. “In October, we handed out over 300 packs of food, which means we fed over 1,300 individuals who would have otherwise not had enough food to eat.”         

The majority of the people the Foodbank services are working people who for one reason or another still aren’t able to financial manage independently – many of them find themselves struggling due to the increase in rents Malta has seen over the last few years.    

A KPMG report shows that average rental prices in Malta, excluding Gozo, had risen by roughly 47% between 2013 and 2016.   

“Our clients are manly Maltese, many of them working people, but for one reason or another find themselves in financial difficulties. In the last year or so many of that has been due to rents… their rents have increased yet their pay hasn’t and they find themselves in difficulty,” Hurst said.       

The Foodbank also receives referrals from mental health clinics, Mount Carmel Hospital and from the oncology unit at Mater Dei Hospital among others
The Foodbank also receives referrals from mental health clinics, Mount Carmel Hospital and from the oncology unit at Mater Dei Hospital among others

The Foodbank also receives referrals from mental health clinics, Mount Carmel Hospital and from the oncology unit at Mater Dei Hospital among others. Hurst said that people often find themselves in difficult positions due to sudden illnesses that leave the breadwinner of the family unable to work – along with deaths of spouses that put financial strain on the remaining parent.      

“If the main breadwinner is suddenly taken ill and is unable to work, then the family finds itself in real financial difficulty until benefits kick in. If you have the choice of paying for medication for your loved one or putting food in your children’s mouths how do you make that decision? It’s a decision that any family could have to face at any point.”   

She said that while they do serve some homeless people – the majority of people, at the very least, live in garages – which in Malta is currently illegal. Moreover, Hurst said that they are starting to see three or even four generations of a family living together, struggling to cope financially.     

“We have a few situations where the parents go out to work and are unable to take care of their children, so during the week the children stay with the grandparents. But the grandparents aren’t getting any more extra money to feed the children and that puts a strain on the family relationship.”

If you have the choice of paying for medication for your loved one or putting food in your children’s mouths how do you make that decision? Kim Hurst

When asked what items the Foodbank currently needed the most, Hurst said that more than anything breakfast items are needed.

“The items we tend to be short of that people don’t tend to donate are breakfast items. So cereal, fruit juice, long-life milk, tins of fruit… items that are slightly more expensive, that people don’t have facility to buy. So one box of corn flakes, rather than two bags of pasta – the boxes of corn flakes at the moment are the more needed.”  

Hurst explained that they try to make things accommodating as possible for people using the Foodbank – which means finding options for those individuals that don’t have access to a kitchen, is important.  

“We have tins with ring pull ons, so you can just pull into the tin and eat the food straight from the tin… but then we also have things like pot noodles where if they go into many of the cafés and ask, ‘Will you put some hot water into this?’, they will put hot water in them for free,” she said.

This Christmas, for the third year in a row, the Lifeline Foundation is running a reverse advent calendar – last year 2,000 boxes of food were donated through the event.  

“What we ask is that during Advent, during this time leading up to Christmas, people think about others who don’t have the type of Christmas they have, and we ask them so that each day, instead of opening an advent calendar and getting a chocolate, they put one item into a box and at the end of the 24 days at Christmas there will be 24 items in a box, and those items will help us feed a family.”

Anyone who is interested in participating can drop off reverse advent calendar boxes at their nearest Quicklets or Zanzi home outlet – or for those who live in the Three Cities, Esplora is also accepting boxes for the Foodbank. “If they leave their boxes, we will collect them, and they’ll know that with that box they have enabled us to help people in the new year,” Hurst said.