The Birkirkara home where strangers eat together with dignity [Video]

It is midday. The doorbell at Dar Papa Franġisku starts ringing every couple of minutes. Each time it is someone hungry, turning up for the free lunch offered daily at the Birkirkara soup kitchen, which serves an average of 50 lunches daily.

Several third-country nationals are covered in dust and paint, clearly on their work break, as they queue for their helping: it’s soup today. Yesterday it was pizza, and the previous days it was grilled chicken and baked pasta.

Other diners include elderly men who want some company during lunchtime, a woman with a drug addiction who has no money for food, and a clean-shaven polite young man in casual clothes who is very suspicious of the cameraman in the area until he is assured that faces will not be identified.

Then there is Alan (not his real name) who is happy to talk about his story anonymously. He …