10 May 2007
BEIRUT: A chain of restaurants offering free meals for the elderly opened a new branch at Ksara in the Bekaa Valley region on Sunday, with members of a committee on the restaurant's expansion praising donors who had contributed to the effort. The Mahabba chain was established by former President Charles Helou in 1983.
Archbishop George Iskandar, head of the expansion committee, said that "the new location could be rehabilitated, thanks to philanthropists such as Nabil Chartouni."
Chartouni is a businessman and member of the board of trustees of the American University of Beirut (AUB). He helped cover expenses to set up the center.
Chartouni's gesture came after donations to AUB and Notre Dame University (NDU) scholarship programs.
"I was happy to contribute to this restaurant but I wanted to work on a sharing basis whereby everyone is involved," Chartouni told The Daily Star. "I wanted everyone to be involved in the process, so that I feel that I'm contributing to a beehive of bees.
"I went and saw what they did; women would go out, get people to contribute the cost of a meal, bring elderly people by bus, and cook for them," he said. "It's not only a way of feeding them because they are poor, but its also entertaining for them ... I decided to help and it gives a lot of satisfaction. It creates an atmosphere of common community contribution, where everyone comes and works together."
"The restaurant will continue the mission it has started 19 years ago," Iskandar said.
According to Iskandar, the Zahle restaurant is the chain's 27th in Lebanon. The first opened on September 26, 1988, and offered its first meal to 20 elderly people. - The Daily Star, additional reporting by Nour Samaha
