Father Charlie’s soup kitchen preparing 400 Christmas hampers for those in need

Some 400 Christmas hampers filled with necessities will be delivered to families in need this Christmas in a collaboration between Monisgnor Charles Azzopardi, volunteers, school students and local businesses.

This year is the 45th in which hampers will be distributed to those in the community who are feeling the pinch.

Efforts have already begun to ensure those in need will receive their hampers in time for Christmas, with distributions set to take place on Friday.

The hampers will include groceries and vegetables for the families to help them through Christmas and the following weeks in January.

Christmas cards will also be placed within the hampers to spread Christmas cheer.

Monisgnor Charles Azzopardi, who many know as Father Charlie, told the Chronicle that the hampers will be distributed to various people in need including pensioners and single parents who are struggling with increased prices on goods.

“Some of our pensioners only receive the old age pension and community care as their sole income,” he said.

“It’s not always easy for some elderly couples, also for single mothers.”

“Everything has gone sky high, the prices have gone up for everybody, so it’s difficult.”

“This is really, as I always say, this is what we give is to help them during the month of January. Because other people will also be giving them Christmas things.”

“So, these are groceries and vegetables which will be used during Christmas and also for the beginning of the year.”

With the initiative having taken place for many years and an increase in the numbers of hampers distributed, Fr Charlie said “I don't think that it's that there's been more need now than then I think it's that we have been able to reach out to more people”.

Gibmaroc have donated fruit and vegetables towards the initiative since it first began and have done so again this year, with Bassadone Motors in recent years having allowed the use of their storage facilities to store the hampers before they are sent out.

The efforts also involve volunteers at Fr Charlie’s soup kitchen and students from Bayside and Westside school.

On Tuesday morning, some 150 Bayside students helped pack the hampers, which took around an hour to do in what Fr Charlie said was a record time.

Westside students played their part too by creating the Christmas cards for the hamper.

“It’s important that it’s not just a hamper, but that there is a message to that hamper,” Fr Charlie said.

“If it wasn't for the teachers and the students, it would be a very difficult situation.”

“We are very blessed, this year has been a record year, they packed everything within an hour.”

This year, Fr Charlie has liaised with the EV foundation to ensure no one in the community in misses out from the various initiatives in place to support them.

“This year we are liaising with the EV foundation to make sure that those we are helping, they are not helping, and vice versa, it’s important that everybody gets something this Christmas.”

“I think that when we talk about Gibraltar, we're not talking about poverty, they are needy. In comparison to their peers.”