An NGO that feeds hungry families is being forced to pay almost 40 per cent more for food packs than it did two years ago.

The Foodbank Lifeline Foundation is having to contend with a drastic jump in food prices fuelled by years of sky-high inflation.

When coupled with a big drop in food donations and an increase in demand for their services, the price hike is making it hard for the NGO to continue to help those in need.

A seven-day food pack that cost €23.70 to put together in October 2021 now costs the foundation €32.45 – an almost 40 per cent increase. In 2022, it used to cost €28.56.

The food pack includes enough canned food, pasta, cereals, milk, rice and other items to provide three meals a day to a five-person family. The NGO’s team of 30 volunteers pack around 300 bags per week.

Costs for food packs to feed single people or couples are also up significantly.

“As a foodbank, we go to our suppliers and have seen the increase in prices, and we have been affected by the increase.

“We buy our stock in bulk and have witnessed the increase in prices,” Foodbank Lifeline Foundation manager Barbara Caruana told Times of Malta.

Barbara Caruana (middle) alongside volunteers John and Pauline.

The spike itself, she added, was one of the main reasons that more people were turning to the foundation for help.

Foodbank Lifeline caters for around 235 families, a majority of which are Maltese low-income families.

While people use the services for six weeks as a short-term solution, Caruana said more and more families were being referred to the NGO over and over again.

“We are seeing a trend of families that still need help even after six months of us providing for them,” she said. “We cannot turn them away. We are also seeing older couples who are not managing to make ends meet with their pensions.”

Another NGO which provides families with basic food items and detergents, the St Jeanne Antide Foundation, has also seen more families reach out.

Last year, the foundation supported 635 families, 90 of them helped every month.

Miriam Grech, a family-support worker at the foundation, said they received requests for help from elderly couples as well as younger families that could not keep up with rent and food prices.

Food price inflation has hit Malta especially hard in the past years and continues to remain stubbornly high. According to National Statistics Office figures, the annual inflation rate for food and non-alcoholic beverages stood at 8.1 per cent in October, compared to the 7.4 per cent average rate in the Eurozone that month.

Volunteers at work.

Apart from the challenges of increasing food prices, the Foodbank Lifeline Foundation must also contend with another problem: fewer donations.

In 2022, the amount of donated food it collected during a December donation drive was just half that it received in 2021. 

Caruana said that was a significant setback, as the food it collects during its Reverse Calender Initiative is used for food packs it distributes during the leaner winter months.

“Before, certain schools would be able to collect up to 10 boxes. Now [when] we go to the same schools to pick up donations, there will be four or five boxes,” she said.

School principals have told her that even students and their families are struggling this year, making it harder for the NGO to amass donations.

Donations from private individuals are also down, and while people previously donated all sorts of things, now many restrict themselves to toiletries, gifts or toys.

Those are appreciated, but food is the priority, Grech added.

Caruana is hopeful that 2023 donations will surpass last year’s. “Ideally the donations last up until March, but we will see,” she said. “I want to be in a position where I don’t have to say no to a family or send them away because we don’t have enough donations.”

Foodbank Lifeline Foundation operates in Marsa and has distribution points in Valletta,  Paola, Sliema, Qawra, and Gozo. For more information on ways to help, one may visit foodbanklifeline.com

For more information on Fondazzjoni St Jeanne Antide, one may visit their Facebook page or contact 79297153.