Thankfully, there are sensitive people who organise Victory Kitchens to feed these people living well below the poverty line.

Likewise, exactly 80 years ago during the height of the Malta Blitz, in mid-1942, Victory Kitchens were organised to feed a population lacking in food, fuel and other basic commodities.

In an article titled The role of hunger in politics and war by the UN World Food Programme USA in November 2020, it was stated that: "Two years ago, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2417. The Resolution made clear that conflict-induced hunger is a peace and security issue."

But two years later, too little has changed. Around the world millions of people are still trapped in the man-made cycle of conflict, displacement and hunger. Starvation has been defined as "the cheapest weapon of mass destruction available to armies" - cheap and easy to kick off.

In our present-day Malta, Victory Kitchens exist for reasons other than war. People flock to the Victory Kitchen due to the Covid-19 pandemic which left many people jobless and below the poverty line.

During the Second World War, the Axis forces did their utmost to starve Malta and its defenders into submission and surrender. Were it not for the effective and efficient organisation of rationing of scarce essential commodities, such as food, petrol, oil and others, Malta was just a few weeks away from its last supplies and surrender was the only option.

The recent discovery of a Communal Feeding Department Victory Kitchen receipt booklet sheds more light of how Victory Kitchens were organised and the attitude of the people towards them.

The booklet refers to the Sliema area and the 92d Victory Kitchen. The number 92d reveals the large quantity of these kitchens spread over one locality. The sub-manager of 92d "V" Kitchen was M. Busuttil and some of the remaining receipts in the booklet show that, against payment, each person was given a set of coupons to exchange for food. Not all details are clearly legible on the booklet but the information which can be read reveals the following:

When Victory Kitchens were set up in Malta in mid-1942, the island was only a few weeks away from starvation and surrender. A civilian population without food created problems for the authorities and these included not only illnesses from malnutrition but a weakened morale.

From interviews carried out by Laurence Mizzi in his book The People's War, Malta: 1940/43, the author interviewed several people who lived the harsh experiences of the war years and recount their experiences.

Regarding the Victory Kitchens some of the accounts are quite revealing on the food situation and the quality and quantity of the food handed out at these kitchens. Most importantly, it was how the Victory Kitchens were being administered but it seems that the civilian population was disgruntled and had little hope in them. The following are some testimonies from Mizzi's book:

Helen Cuell: "Like most Maltese we suffered the pans of hunger, in fact, we suffered more because we could never stomach the Victory Kitchen meals except for tinned tuna. We never got any food from service people; I think they were as badly off as the rest of us."

John A. Mizzi: "In mid-1942 Victory Kitchens were set up to cope with the food shortage: the meals consisted generally of potatoes, beans and mutton or goat meat. Vitamin deficiency, the result of the poor nutrition levels, manifested in scabies. When Lord Gort arrived in Malta to take over the governorship from General Dobbie, plans for surrendering the Island were apparently being considered, but the former, on sensing the spirit of the defenders, resolved to hold on until the last cartridge and the last morsel of food."

Concetta Falzon: "When the Victory Kitchens started functioning we used to get some food in exchange for ration coupons. A close friend of my husband's, a middle-aged bachelor, used to give us his coupons so that we were able to get an extra portion. All my cooking used to be done on the old kerosene stove with three wicks. Kerosene was rationed too and you had to present the coupon before you could be served."

From the above and other testimonies, the writing was on the wall and there was no need to put it in writing on paper that the island had reached the very last of its food supplies and the quality and quantity, plus the administration of it, said it all. Although the Victory Kitchens provided the means by which nobody starved, a minority pilfered and black-marketed.

The "Siege" or "Victory Kitchens" of Malta were administered by the Communal Feeding Department and were more of an improvisation necessitated by the possibility of a more serious deterioration in the fuel and food position.

Thanks to the arrival of the Santa Marija Convoy on 15 August 1942, the situation in the Mediterranean improved enormously and the supply position and security of shipping lines was practically assured. The authorities were thus relieved from this state of anxiety and granted 100% increases in bread ration and appreciable increases in other commodities.

The Victory Kitchens were discontinued during 1943 and the aim of economising on the use of scarce fuel and food provisions had reached its goal. Indeed the Victory Kitchens stood their test of time and are now, albeit for other reasons than war, a feature of the generosity of the Maltese society.