The Foodbank Lifeline Foundation is seeing an increase in clients for every year they have been open, particularly in the month on month increases this year, Reverend Kim Hurst said.

Reverend Hurst, the founder and chairperson who previously ran a food bank in Cumbria, UK, explained that if they constantly remain at the current output levels they will feed in excess of 16,500 people, handing out food to the value of €225,000.

The total number of people fed in first five months of 2019 is 6442, and the total value of food handed out in the first 5 months of 2019 is €86,826.

"More and more of our clients are working poor. People in reasonably low-income jobs and their rents have just gone up so much."

She noted that the minimum wage in Malta is "ridiculously low" and the rents are "ridiculously high", and that unless something is done then the food bank is just going to be feeding more and more people.

They recently fed the most people they had ever fed in any one week, when three weeks ago they provided for 110 families in a span of seven days.

Referrals to the foodbank come from a variety of places including the Oncology Unit in Mater Dei, people who have health issues and need access to food, and also from individuals who's bank accounts may be frozen due to the death of a spouse, for example.

"Tonight we'll probably have 20 to 25 clients come here; St Paul's Bay is still small and we don't get as many there, maybe about 10 to 15 clients; Paola centre is the busiest as it gets people from Paola, Tarxien, the Three Cities, Marsaskala, Marsaxlokk, and there are quite a number of people struggling in that area."

Food is packed into boxes split depending on what the situation is - either a family pack, a couple, or a single person.

"In Christmas, we get a huge amount of food donated, and it lasted until March. We are still handing out pasta, but the rest of the food started to run out in February and March."

Reverend Hurst explained that they are currently in contact with a number of hotels and restaurants in a bid to be able to provide for more people in need - with the plan being the adding of €1 to every bill as an opt-out donation where "if five people went out to eat that would add up to €0.20 each".

"We're talking to a couple of restaurants and a hotel chain at the moment."