Four young Egyptian friends have responded to urban poverty, hoping to make a difference, with an initiative called “Fighting hunger is easy.” Mohamed Srror is an engineer and a cofounder of the initiative. He says that too much food bought by households and restaurants is wasted. He and his friends had the idea of setting up a distribution system that reduces food waste and benefits the needy. As part of the group's initiative, boxes bearing the words “Take what you want”, along with the group's logo, have been given out to restaurants. “It is important that the boxes have our logo on them, as this way people who cannot read will know that the food in the box is for them,” Srror explains. To prevent cats and other vermin from being drawn to the food, the boxes open upwards. The friends started their initiative in Alexandria and have now expanded to Cairo, Mansoura, Marsa Matrouh, Kafr Al-Sheikh and Sohag. The project will soon reach Aswan. There is a director for each team in each governorate. The idea is also being adopted in Saudi Arabia. “Due to the extremely hot weather in Saudi Arabia, we have installed fridges under campaign patronage,” Srror said, adding that they are now looking to expand to include more countries in the region. People who want to install a box can contact the group through its Facebook page or call using the number provided. Before setting up a box the initiative checks if the place is suitable, has the necessary permissions and makes sure that the box will be properly maintained. After installing the box the group's mission does not end there. The group's members try to make sure that people are benefiting from them. But Srror says the boxes are not otherwise monitored, and anyone can take food from them. “This is the aim, because some people might feel embarrassed to take food otherwise,” he says. “Some people had been used to eating just once a day, but now they can visit the boxes three times a day to find meals,” says Ahmed Gamal, the manager of the first restaurant to install a box in Alexandria, Abu Rabea. He says that restaurant staff wrap-up clean leftovers and put them in the box. Destitute people who used to ask for a free sandwich now just head to the box, he says. The restaurant's customers also like the idea, and some of them have started to put household leftovers in the box. “Egyptian people like charity. Many buy extra food and add it to the box, while others put in leftovers,” Gamal says. While there were fears that food would spoil in the boxes, this has not been the case since people immediately come to take the food. “As soon as people know where the box is, they wait for the food to be placed in it and then immediately take it,” Srror says. According to Gamal, the friends have introduced the idea to all the restaurant chains in Alexandria, with a view to ensuring that as many people as possible benefit, including street children. He said the group's efforts are a form of social solidarity, where people with extra food gave it to the needy. “I wish everyone would participate in the initiative. Then a huge number of hungry people would be covered,” he says. There are now 400 boxes around Egypt and the initiative has around 100 volunteers. In a similar development, a board member of the Al-Ahly Bank Club in Alexandria installed a box by the club's backdoor, which opens onto a disadvantaged area. At lunchtime clean leftovers are left in the box, along with plastic cutlery. The restaurant cook has even started preparing extra food just for the box. Members of the club like the idea and pay for the extra food so that more charity meals are available. The idea of providing food for the underprivileged is not a new one. The Egyptian Food Bank, a nonprofit organisation, was founded by businessmen in 2006. They said then that their aim was to end hunger in Egypt by 2020. There are now Food Banks in every governorate, with some 27,000 volunteers taking part. The writer is a freelance journalist.
