Goodwill hunting

Rising malnutrition levels make feeding the poor imperative -- all year round. Gihan Shahine finds NGOs are putting a new spin on traditions of Ramadan charity
photo: Antoune Albert
This is not a typical day for the children at Al- Mabarra orphanage in Giza. Their games are more energetic than usual, their laughter more excited. Today, they are celebrating the birthdays of all the orphans whose birthdays fall in November. Such festivities, once exceptional occasions, are now a monthly tradition. The orphans at Al-Mabarra cannot hope that family and friends will come to visit, bearing new clothes or toys. But they are just as happy as children with the latest video game.
A group of young people knock at the orphanage's door a few minutes later, their arms full of packets. A table is soon groaning under the weight of enormous chocolate and fruit cakes, doughnuts, biscuits and pastries. The children cluster around the table, jostling each other with barely restrained anticipation. They do not have to wait long: they sing, the birthday boys and girls blow out their candles, and the table is soon strewn with nothing but empty dishes and a few crumbs.
The scene at Al-Mabarra is hardly a common one: at orphanages in Egypt, especially those run by the state, tight funds and principles of austerity mean that the children are usually kept on a strict diet. Many NGOs, however, are seeking to change all that. Al-Risala is a case in point. Apart from the monthly birthday parties, the organisation holds many events as part of its food-bank programme, the first ever in Egypt.
The programme, launched last June, collects extra food from hotels, supermarkets and food businesses. Staff test, sort and package it, then redistribute it to the poor.
"The idea is that, on one hand, there is a great deal of food wasted and, on the other, many people need food desperately," explains Sameh Bakr, a volunteer with Al-Risala, who is responsible for the food bank project.
Hotels and bakeries, for instance, get rid of unsold deserts and pastry at the end of every day. Hotels throw away huge quantities of food after weddings and banquets. Supermarkets dump food that is nearing its expiry date. "This food cannot be sold, but the bulk is perfectly edible," Bakr asserts. "So why waste it when it can fill many empty stomachs?"
Al-Risala volunteers are not re-inventing the wheel: food banks exist the world over. John Van Hangel created the St Mary food bank, the world's first, in the US in 1967. Hangel was "just taking care of the hungry" in his own neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona, but he "ended up founding the world's first food bank -- a facility for storing and giving out food to soup kitchens, food pantries and shelters throughout the area."
Hangel started small, as a volunteer at the St Vincent de Paul dining room, collecting excess food from private homes and businesses to feed the hungry, according to the food bank's web site. Then the Church of St Mary gave him the use of an abandoned building at a symbolic price, and he began to develop the project further. In the first year, Hangel and his volunteers received and distributed about 250,000lb of food. St Mary's Food Bank has since moved to much larger headquarters, and last year distributed "about 14 million pounds of food to meal sites, emergency food pantries, cooperative food-buying programs" and other recipients. Now in his mid-70s, Hangel is helping to establish food banks throughout the world.
"The key thing is, you're feeding people," Hangel says. "There's food wasted in every big city."
Cairo is no exception. But can we copy Hangel's success story here? "The idea, unfortunately, is still very alien to Egyptians, which greatly hinders our work," admits Sherif Abdel-Azim, professor of engineering at Cairo University and Al-Risala board chairman. "So of course, we are still working on a very small scale."
Al-Risala and the food bank project were born in the classrooms of Cairo University's Faculty of Engineering. They are the brainchild of a group of devoted engineering students who found great inspiration in Abdel- Azim's lectures on ethics and voluntary work.
Having spent some time in Canada, Abdel- Azim was impressed by its active civil society. He discussed his experience with his students, who, inspired by his account, became enthusiastically involved in voluntary work. Students volunteered at orphanages, cancer institutes and hospitals -- earning credit-hours for Abdel-Azim's course at the same time.
Once the course was over, however, the desire to do good remained. "We became devoted to volunteering," Bakr recalls. "We felt especially strongly for the orphans, and we wanted to establish our own orphanage where we could take better care of the children and avoid the mistakes made in other homes," he continues.
With Abdel-Azim's support, and a piece of land donated by a student's relative, Al-Risala was registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs in 2000. Its orphanage is currently home to 30 children and also houses a computer library for the blind.
Then came the idea of creating a food bank for the poor.
Accurate statistics on poverty levels in Egypt are hard to come by. Recent official estimates, however, show that seven per cent of the population live in severe poverty, spending less than LE1 a day on food. An additional 16 per cent live below the poverty line, spending less than LE2.5 a day on food and basic services. A quarter of the population is above the poverty line, but does not have the resources to guarantee average living standards. In other words, half the population is poor.
A study by Nader Fergany, head of Al- Mishkat Research centre, warns that "the quantities of foodstuffs consumed per person must have decreased considerably in the last few years." Related to this decline in expenditure on food, Fergany notes, is serious malnutrition among poor children, "producing physical impairment, precluding development of mental faculties and curtailing learning abilities."
If the state is failing to provide half the population with adequate nutrition, private initiatives are a desperately needed -- although necessarily inadequate -- alternative. "Poverty is taking a heavy toll on society; and we had all the necessary facilities: the place and human resources," Abdel-Azim explains. "If the food bank idea could be applied in the West, we thought, then it could be implemented in Egypt, where religious values of charity prevail."
To his disappointment, however, the 50 volunteers who have approached hotels, supermarkets and factories have not met with the overwhelming success they hoped for. One five-star hotel took the initiative; two restaurants, a supermarket and a neighbourhood bakery followed suit. Will more businesses chip in?
Perhaps. "But people are still not familiar with the true sense of voluntary work. The most they will do is give money to charity," Abdel-Azim explains.
There is also an economic factor involved. Supermarkets put foods nearing their expiry date on sale or simply return them to the producer, instead of discarding them; some hotels give food left-overs to staff to supplement low salaries.
Al-Risala's volunteers, however, are not giving up. Currently, they distribute an average of 350 meals a week to 150 families and 200 individuals: traffic policemen (who receive rock- bottom salaries and meagre food rations), orphans, homeless and disabled children. The meals are made up mainly of pastries and sweets -- low on nutritional value, perhaps, but invaluable as special treats.
"The children get very excited when they can have a piece of cake with their regular morning sandwich," says Ghada, a physician and a volunteer with Al-Risala, who makes regular deliveries to an orphanage in the Qanater area. "The orphanage barely has enough resources to feed 40 children -- so of course, they would never have dessert or snacks otherwise." When many children are simply undernourished, furthermore, every extra calorie counts.
Al-Risala's members, however, would like to do more. "We are currently involved in negotiations with one supermarket to provide more substantial food supplies," Bakr says. The store once donated a large quantity of cheese; added to other food items the volunteers bought themselves, this made a large number of light meals that were distributed to traffic policemen and children.
"We hope that by increasing awareness we can develop our activities: obtain more food, build a database telling us who the needy are, and organise fixed delivery runs," Abdel-Azim says optimistically.
Magdi Salah of Bon Appetit, one of the contributors to the food bank, is equally enthusiastic. "The idea is a great one: it helps feed the poor while helping businesses get rid of excess food," he says.
If the NGO wants to expand its activities, however, it will probably have to offer more tangible incentives to the private sector. "Private businesses are profit-oriented," Zeinab El- Ashwah, professor of economics at Al-Azhar University, explains. "[Al-Risala] could provide publicity for businesses that donate food, mentioning their names to the press. More practically, however, I would suggest that NGOs provide the medium through which businesses can offer products at symbolic prices to all limited-income families."
What about those with no income at all? "Outreach feeding programmes would be great, of course," El-Ashwah says. "Privatisation and economic reform have increased the number of the poor. Poverty is spreading into the middle strata of society. There should be more feeding programmes to address this problem."
And indeed, more NGOs are taking up that challenge. The traditional Mawa'id Al-Rahman ("tables of mercy") which offer free Iftars to the poor, have inspired many NGOs to organise year-round feeding programmes. Fathet Kheir is one example. Through its "meals on wheels" programme, the organisation distributes 1,000 cold meals weekly to two orphanages, traffic policemen and 50 families. The meals consist mainly of bread, cheese, fresh vegetables and fruits, donated by three private businesses.
"In Ramadan, an increase in donations helps us distribute bulk meals to 600 families," says Amira El-Borrollossi, a volunteer for Fathet Kheir.
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