Abu Dhabi: Around Dh3 million has been raised to stem hunger around the world over the next three years, restaurant franchise Just Falafel says.
Based in the UAE, Just Falafel has joined forces with the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations’ frontline agency fighting hunger, to fight hunger on a global scale.
Global hunger affects nearly a billion people, deadly acute malnutrition also affects 55 million children worldwide, according to WFP.
“One in eight people in the world are undernourished. As a socially responsible organisation, giving back to the community is deeply rooted in our company ethos. Our partnership with WFP underscores our commitment to assisting those in need,” said Mohammad Bitar, founder and managing director of Just Falafel. Hunger and malnutrition are the number one health risk, greater than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.
Nearly 900 million people around the world do not have enough to eat and lead active and healthy lives. That number includes millions of people in the Middle East, according to the WFP figures released recently.
“This is a great act of generosity which will help people all over the world who must contend with the hardship of hunger in their daily lives,” said Ashraf Hamouda, regional head of private partnership and business development at WFP.
“We know how to solve hunger, yet we can not do it alone. Partnerships are significant to reach the goal of ending hunger in our lifetimes,” he added.
Bitar also pointed out that with almost 1,000 franchises set to open by 2016, Just Falafel will donate $500 (Dh1,836) to the UN WFP with every new restaurant opening.
The WFP has also played an essential role to encourage the locally-grown production.
Purchase for Progress (P4P), which is a five year initiative of the WFP, has started in 2008 as the organisation desired to purchase food in a way that was part of the solution to hunger.
The P4P initiave enables low-income farmers to supply food to the WFP’s operations aiming to create a wide and sophisticate market for commodities in developing countries.
“Over 50,000 farmers have received training from the WFP and partners in improved agricultural production, post-harvest handling and quality assurance in around 20 countries. The WFP pays smallholder farmers who have an opportunity or potential for higher yields to benefit from green revolution in most of the countries worldwide,” Hamouda added.
