Government to launch nationally-funded food aid scheme

The government will launch a food aid scheme that will be available for vulnerable people who don’t qualify for an EU-funded programme.

Social solidarity minister Michael Farrugia admitted in Parliament that not all people in risk of poverty are benefitting from the EU’s ‘European Aid to the Most Deprived’ (FEAD) programme, that provides food packages to families with the lowest means of income.

Malta has been allocated €4 million for this programme for the period between 2014 and 2020. To qualify for the aid, households must have at least two children, receive social assistance, and receive low non-contributory pensions or a revenue below the minimum wage.

Farrugia said that 23,000 people used to benefit from EU food aid in the past, and that the number of beneficiaries would be far greater through both the FEAD scheme and the government's own programme combined.

“The government realizes that not all vulnerable families are benefitting from the EU-funded scheme, including families in poverty who don’t qualify for the aid because they only have one child,” Farrugia said in response to supplementary questions by Opposition MP Censu Galea. "We will therefore launch our own food aid scheme, with funds allocated from the consolidated fund.

He added that discussions are ongoing between government, the Church and private companies to establish a food bank that will gather up excess food from the FEAD scheme and allocate it to institutions.

In response to the original parliamentary question by Opposition MP Paula Mifsud Bonnici, Farrugia said that the EU-funded food package includes long-life milk, baked beans, tomatoes, tuna, hot dog sausages in brine, canned fruit, tinned vegetables, whole-wheat cereal, Corn Flakes, dried nuts, pulses, pasta and rice.