Thursday, Apr 20, 2017

With an estimated 4 billion dirham worth of food wastage occurring in the UAE every year, an initiative to curb this practice takes commendable shape in the form of the UAE Food Bank Project.

Announced in January this year by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the project got off to a strong start with the launch of the first food bank in Dubai last week.

The Food Bank Project works at many levels not the least of which is to raise awareness on the individual responsibility of respecting food rather than wasting it. Get this: 196 kilos of food is wasted by each person every year in the UAE, a staggering abuse of the privilege of having plenty in a world that is teeming with the needy and the hungry.

The Food Bank Project, aimed at reaching out to the needy and hungry, within its own borders and around the globe, is ennobling in its purpose.

With 30 food banks and a 100 food fridges set to open across the UAE in a phased manner, the project will penetrate the deepest recesses of society drawing in charities, organisations, hotels and individuals to partner in its mission.

This grass-root level reach is its greatest strength. It is axiomatic that encouraging people to get involved in feeding the hungry has a direct impact on their attitude to food wastage.

Every time an individual contributes to a food fridge from now on, it will remind them that they are ensuring there is one less individual in the world going hungry. This empowerment is the biggest deterrent to treating food like it’s a landfill end product.

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