After collecting over 360,000 surplus meals last year, Hifz Al Naema Center has emerged as a significant social initiative in enhancing Qatar’s efforts to reduce food waste.
Hifz Al Naema Center, which was established in 2008, is a service and awareness-raising social center that aims to optimise existing resources and capital that would have otherwise been thrown away. These resources instead of being thrown into landfills, are reused to meet the the needs of vulnerable people and to educate the rich on the hazards of food waste as well as to protect the environment.
Speaking to Qatar TV, Public Relations Officer at Hifz Al Naema Center, Mohamed Youssef Al Muftah said that the Center’s activities increased during Ramadan because of generosity of people during the holy month.
“The Center is working as a food bank for surplus meals collected from restaurants, banquettes and parties. They are then distributed to people in need after repackaging,” Al Muftah said.
“Under Iftar programme, we are distributing 3,700 meals collected from the said surplus sources daily. As many as 1,500 meals are donated by a charity organisation,” added Al Muftah. He noted that these meals are being distributed to workers in labour camps.
Al Muftah said that the service for collecting surplus foods from across the country is available via the Center’s hotline, 44355555.
According to the statistics shared by the Center on its social networking site, during 2021, Hifz Al Naema Center received 360,504 cooked meals. The generous donation also included 26,301 kg fruits and vegetables, 19,212 kg rice, 7,874 kg meat, over 16 tonnes dates, about 14 tonnes chicken and 24,465 liters of edible oils.
The Center also received over 683 tonnes of food items and 459,263 pieces of in-kind donation during the period of study. The number of beneficiaries of the Center’s activities reached 290,016 last year.
With a noble vision of a waste-free Qatar, the Center has prioritised finding alternative and sustainable waste management practices through redistribution and reuse.
It is raising awareness about responsible food consumption, reinforcing charitable giving and empathy between different social classes and promoting sustainable practices to alleviate the burden of waste management on the environment.
Hifz Al Naema Center is also educating the youth and the homemakers on how to prevent food waste from occurring in the first place, and then on proper ways to reuse excess food sustainability.
