UAE restaurants join hands to feed the Hungry

Eat out in Dubai and you could be helping feed a hungry child. About 100 restaurants in the UAE are joining hands with the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in a new initiative called “Eat & Feed” that was launched at the Dubai Airshow on Monday.

The initiative is part of the WFP Aviation Safety Division and the Al Aroud Group. Apart from the five restaurants owned and operated by the Al Aroud Group, about 100 other partner outlets are also expected to participate in the initiative.

Customers will be given an option at the time of billing to contribute whatever they prefer to the WFP Programme. The voluntary initiative is expected to collect funds to transport the food to the hungry.

Samir Sajet, WFP Regiona Aviation Safety Officer, told Emirates 24l7: “No customer will be forced to contribute. It will clearly be a voluntary initiative.”

In the second such initiative called “Fly & Feed” Middle East Business Aviation Association (Mebaa) will contribute $20 from every chartered service they operate. However, no indications were provided about how many chartered flights they operate on a weekly or monthly basis.

According to Sajet, any such initiatives will go on to help the WFP cause in feeding the hungry. WFP received $100,000 from Al Aroud group towards relief activities in the Philippines.

WFP has already rushed in three aircrafts full of relief materials to the Philippines and the fourth flight will be sent in soon. “We are even sending in supplies from the UAE,” said Sajet.

“The task ahead is challenging and we do not know how long it would take to complete the operations,” he added.

The UAE division of WFP handles operations in Afghanistan and Sudan.