Over 1,000 meals have been delivered. We’ve seen 150 smiling faces as they received a warm meal. Stood in awe at the generosity of hundreds of people and companies that helped us collect over €16,000. We’ve supported local struggling restaurants that have partnered with us to provide delicious warm cooked meals to people who may have ended up without a meal.

We have gone from helping 30 people to helping 150 people. We have gone from delivering 90 meals in a week to delivering almost 400 per week. However we have gone from collecting €10,000 in just over 1 week, to collecting less and less every week that went by, while the expenses kept growing.

Now we find ourselves at a crossroads. For the past two months JCI Malta has almost turned its whole focus on the Buy A Meal project and making it a success. The team has been working daily on finding better ways through which they can extend the budget in order to help more vulnerable people for a longer period of time, as well as to ensure we keep on supporting local businesses. However, the reality is what it is, and the team and the organisation need to make sure efforts are distributed efficiently to make it through this pandemic to be able to offer help in different areas as needed. 

The truth of the matter is, most other events which brought income to the organisation and all that that we had been working for, to make JCI Malta bigger and better in 2020 and to ensure the organisation has funds to survive beyond this same year, have had to stop. We had to replan and rethink our events to make them accessible online – and that’s just skimming the surface. 

The survival of JCI Malta means the survival of hundreds of other projects like Buy A Meal that can be run in the coming years, and also the survival of our skills programmes that ensure that Malta has an extensive list of young people who are active citizens, agents of positive change, and true leaders in their respective fields.

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that the 3rd May will be the last day that JCI Malta will be receiving donations for Buy A Meal. Following this, we will announce the end date of the Buy A Meal project. This means that the more funds we receive now (in the short term), the longer the project can run. We will ensure that every last cent donated to Buy A Meal will be spent on meals that support local businesses and help those most vulnerable in our society.

It is now back in your generous hands to help us sustain the project for as long as possible, by making your donations now. A simple €10 donation from you can help us go the extra mile. 

We cannot conclude this update without thanking each and every individual who has sent in their donations, some of whom have also sent donations multiple times. We would also like to thank the companies that have helped us tremendously through their generous donations, particularly NDC Media, Rootz, Smart Supermarket, Bolt, Gamesys Group, and also Siobhan Vassallo for our artworks. We also would like to thank JPA for assisting us with our press releases, and the local media for having published articles about our launch, and also follow-ups, which helped to keep our project in the public eye. We would also like to thank all the NGOs we have been collaborating with through this project including Caritas Malta, Richmond Foundation, Millenium Chapel, YMCA Malta, Fondazzjoni Kenn u Tama, SOS Malta, and the Migrant Women Foundation. Moreover, a big thanks goes out to the restaurants who provided the delicious meals – Amigos, Balance Bowl, Bouche, Foam and Fork, MedAsia, Naar Restobar, Noodlebox by MedAsia, Smuggler’s Cave (Gozo), Thomas Franks – and Bolt Food for helping with deliveries.

The last but the biggest thanks needs to go to the team of young leaders and members of JCI Malta, as well as the volunteers who have joined the project along the way to ensure the success of the project. A big shoutout goes to Paul Rostkowski, Darine Aboulezz, Tiziana Zammit, Giselle Borg Olivier, Nicole Borg, Stefania Bagala’, Alexandra Niculae, Anamaria Niculae and Francesco Casartelli and all others who in some way, shape or form helped us in the project logistics.

We are truly excited to see how long your generosity will help us make this project last!

Sending well wishes to you all,
Markus Behmann
JCI Malta National President