Rafel Sammut, Founder of Victory Kitchen and Briju restaurant (Gzira) has issued an impassioned plea for restaurant chefs and owners to donate, rather than discard food.

He asks for owners to contact him so that it can be reused and help Victory Kitchen in its mission to provide food for families hard hit by the pandemic.

Victory Kitchen was first set up in the weeks following the closure of restaurants in March 2020.

It has seen an explosion in usage as COVID has left many families struggling to make ends meet. In its first four days, it fed 16 families, in its second week it fed 54 families.

Since then it has continued to experience increased demand. In the last week of February alone, it fed nearly 200.

Mr Sammut’s plea comes as restaurant owners have warned they are planning to close operations in the wake of Thursday’s announcement that venues will only be allowed to offer takeaways.

He expects the number of meals provided, which currently stands at just under 2,000 weekly, is going to rise in the coming weeks.

“I will be doing rounds to pick up any food early next week”, he says to restaurant owners and chefs wanting to donate, “please tag it well with what it is and date of preparation and freeze anything extra”.