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Video: UAE Food Bank opens first branch in Dubai

Dubai - It will contribute to giving surplus food to the needy.

Dubai Municipality officially opened the first location of the UAE Food Bank in Al Quoz on Wednesday morning.
Located just off Al Khail road, the bank contains a big refrigerated container where food donated by establishments is stored and through which charities collect these food items to distribute it to those in need.
Hussain Lootah, DG of Dubai Municipality, said the locations are selected depending on areas with communities of people in need. "We are looking to cater to areas next to laborer accommodations for example. We will then cooperation with municipalities across different emirates to spread the food bank across the country," he said.
Photo by Dhes Handumon/Khaleej Times
Lootah, who signed partnerships with 30 food establishments and charity organizations, noted that the first food donation mission will be directed to famine-hit Somalia in line with the government's relief operations. 
"Everything in today's containers- which had dry and packaged food from four hypermarkets- will be donated to our brothers and sisters to Somalia," he told the press on the sidelines of the launching event.
On its first phase, the location will store packaged and canned food given by food companies and establishments, while the second phase will focus on collecting fresh food from hotel banquets and restaurants.
Photo by Dhes Handumon/Khaleej Times
Lootah noted that 100 fridges, supervised by a trained volunteering team, will be distributed across Dubai mosques during Ramadan to enable residents to donate their surplus food under strict safety guidelines.
"A lot of canned food sadly goes to waste as it nears its expiry date. Having an initiative that collects the dry food doesn't only minimize our waste but also helps people in need," said Lootah.
Currently, one refrigerated truck is deployed to collect food items from nearby hypermarkets and establishments and store it in the location's container.
Noura Al Shamsi, Head of Permits and Applied Nutrition Section at DM, said a maximum of two trucks will be provided on each location to collect food from nearby establishments, with inspectors on sight to check if it follows safety guidelines.
In UAE's average households, 39 per cent of waste is food, and the ratio increases to 55 per cent (1,850 tonnes) during Ramadan, according to Dubai Municipality's estimates.
An estimated three million tonnes of food (Dh14 billion) is wasted annually in the UAE with an average of196Kg of food per person per year.
Announced in January, the UAE Food Bank aims to eliminate waste, making Dubai the first city in the Middle East to achieve zero waste through distributing surplus fresh and dry food to those in need at both the local and regional level.
The food bank is a supervised system, backed by partners that will supply, collect, supervise and distribute the food to those in need.
"We have the food establishments and companies who provide us with the surplus food, charity organizations who distribute the food and logistic partners who are in charge with storing the food in the right way," noted Lootah.
He added while the UAE Food Bank will direct its efforts to the local communities in need in Dubai then across UAE, authorities aim to expand it into a global initiative over the coming years to respond to foreign aid.
- sherouk@khaleejtimes.com

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UAE food bank to provide foreign aid