Restaurants are being asked to donate their excess food to feed the hungry after they were ordered to shut their doors to help contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Philanthropist chef Rafel Sammut on Friday urged chefs and kitchens not to throw out the stock they had prepared for this weekend and instead donate it to his charity food drive which he says feeds up to 2,000 every week.  

On Thursday the authorities announced that restaurants and cafes would only be allowed to serve take away orders until April 11, as part of a new suite of restrictive measures to bring spiralling COVID numbers back under control.  

Sammut, who runs his own restaurant Briju in Gzira, was quick to take to social media to urge restaurants to donate rather than throw out any excess food-prep.

The young chef runs Victory Kitchen, a food charity that works through a network of restaurants, social workers and logistics companies which he set up at the onset of the pandemic.  

Speaking with Times of Malta he urged restaurants to donate food that is still in good condition and to ideally freeze it and label it with the date of preparation and any allergens.

Towards the middle of week, he and his team will be driving around Malta collecting any donations. 

To date, the charity has dished up 38,000 free meals for the hungry, feeding 9,603 families. 

The call has been endorsed by the Kunsill Nazzjonali Żagħżagħ.