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Hundreds of big-hearted people flocked to the Feed the Need food drives staged over the weekend and donated trolleys full of grocery items in support of GulfWeekly’s Ramadan Appeal 2018.
Your campaigning community newspaper has linked up with the charity champions to urge people, hotels and corporations to join the war on food wastage and help end hunger in the kingdom.
Since being launched five years ago by Michelle Bailey and Riyaz Jivanjee, supporters have placed 20 fridges around the kingdom which are regularly filled with hot meals and good items such as rice, milk, cheese, bread and fruit.
Several children, supported by parents, set up tables, trolleys and banners at Alosra stores in Saar’s Najibi Centre and at the El Mercado Mall with the aim of collecting more bundles of grocery donations.
The collected food was used to fill the fridges scattered around the kingdom which help low-paid expat workers and local families struggling to make ends meet.
Michelle joined her children Adam, three, and Layla, 10, in Saar to discuss the initiative, and said: “The Food Drive was a great success. This is collecting food at a grassroots level and also about raising awareness to tell people what we are, where we are, what we do.
“We collected 19 trolleys full of food donations and our volunteers were filling fridges way into the night, sometimes two to three times on Saturday alone. We had shifts of children coming in and going every two hours to help with the drive.”
Shoppers proved responsive and supportive. St Christopher’s School pupil Layla was joined by friends last Saturday and said: “Loads of people donated groceries and it was great. I had friends coming to the store at different times during the day to support the drive.”
Layla’s classmate Soraya, 10, Abughazaleh and her sister Selma, nine, were among them. They were dropped off to the venue and supervised by mum Dina Kasrawi, a communications consultant.
“I’m very proud of the girls,” said Dina from Saar. “They have learned a lot from volunteering such as being thoughtful and considerate to others, important values to possess.
“I believe this is an incredible initiative and I’m pleased that it’s done throughout the year. There are a lot of people in the margin of society that live and contribute to our community but we don’t know anything about them. We should open our hearts and help them. My daughters and I also help stock fridges in our area.”
Michelle is planning to hold a food drive after summer and still has her sights on starting a Food Bank which would act as a collection point for dry goods that are donated, usually because they have a short shelf life. The bank could act as a conduit to all charities and people working with the poor and disadvantaged.
Michelle said: “I have more than 200 suppliers to supermarkets that said they will donate their close-to-end shelf life items to us - crates of items still safe to eat.
“This is why we need a central warehouse for all of the charities. We could also work with the mosques and the churches that have lists of families in need so that we could quietly and discreetly help them on a more regular basis.”
For more details contact Michelle on 39627883 or visit www.feedtheneedbahrain.com
