‘We fight over food’

Tessie* placed her microwave oven in storage, no longer uses her toaster, turned off the freezer and rarely irons clothes as she tries to slash her electricity bill. “I can’t cope … I used to always dress up to go out,” she said, as she looked down at her black tracksuit trousers – which do not need ironing. “I started collecting water from the washing machine in buckets, which I used to flush the toilet, even if it’s black,” she said, as she stood in a queue outside the Millennium Chapel in Paceville yesterday morning. The 60-year-old from Żabbar was among the 200 people who waited for the chapel’s large garage door to open – to collect a few packets of pasta, rice, bread or crackers provided by the EU food aid programme. People in the queue ranged from children accompanying their parents to pensioners – all qualify for food aid because they earn less than €6,275, or 60 per cent of the median national annual income. Smartly dressed young women looked out of place as they waited in the queue that showed the reality of a hidden poverty. One woman pushed an old pram which she hoped to fill with provisions for her family. Others were armed with carrier bags and held their identity...