“Hunger Heroes” Rescue Surplus Food

Can hungry poverty be defeated with cakes? FoodBlessed says yes—and it’s gathering some of Beirut’s best bakers to back its words with desserts.

Last Sunday a group of volunteer bakers met at the Biel waterfront to sell their scrumptious offerings, with the proceeds going towards feeding the poor, homeless, and refugees. This sale will happen every fourth Sunday of each month.

But while sweets eaten for a good cause are that much tastier, these monthly sales are only one way FoodBlessed works to end hunger in Lebanon. Above all, it seeks to alleviate food want with excess food that would otherwise go to waste—since even though an estimated 28.6% of the Lebanese population lives under the poverty line, an enormous amount of food is thrown away daily.

”Nowadays, the terms ‘wasted food’ and ‘food waste’ are used interchangeably, and therein lies the danger,” says FoodBlessed co-founder Maya Terro. “Only when we start to distinguish between these two terms will we realize how we’ve become ‘recklessly extravagant consumers’ and do something about this.”

So FoodBlessed cooperates with numerous partners to rescue surplus food that it distributes to the poor, elderly, and homeless on Thursdays at their hub in Badaro and Fridays at their hub at the Hamra church. Others donate monthly meal vouchers, hot meals and contributions to their food fund. The next round of FoodBlessers will give out Mouneh boxes to Syrian Refugees in Arsal, and are now looking for more volunteer help.

For more info – http://www.foodblessed.org/ and on Youtube