Popular discussion program Xarabank will be collecting food donations on Friday for those who ended up going hungry because of the COVID-19 outbreak.  

Xarabank host Peppi Azzopardi said that over the past few months a number of NGOs had private entities had been handing out meals for those in need, but there were still some who were slipping through the cracks.  

“Although the government and others have been helping those in need during the virus outbreak, there are still those among us who have been going hungry and have not had the means to feed their family,” Azzopardi said.  

Marica Cassar, from Caritas, will on Friday evening recount how she had been in touch with one mother during the virus outbreak who had been unable to feed her three children.  

“She called me and said that she could not feed her three children. ‘They would ask when is dinner going to be ready?’ and I would say ‘soon, soon’. Then we would play a game and I would read to them until they fell asleep,” Cassar says in a brief video clip ahead of Friday night’s episode.   

The initiative is being supported by the Trust Foundation, Caritas, and others. 

President Emeritus Marie Louise Coleiro Preca will be among those helping to raise efunds, Azzopardi said.  

Xarabank airs live at 8pm on Friday night on TVM.