17th October 2012 Beirut, Lebanon
There’s Nothing Wrong with The Leftovers
I’ve become used to my team suggesting life or career threatening stunts to highlight our priorities. In recent weeks, they got me to teach an English lesson to promote Language Day, read The Gruffalo to bemused non-English speakers to promote the British Council’s Kids Read project, and dress up as Bond to promote British brands. I did a speech from a yacht, and drove a London taxi, but turned down a skydive – Felix has cornered that market, I reckon.
But when they proposed ‘eating food from bins’ to mark World Food Day yesterday, I confess to a moment’s hesitation. This was not the Ferrero Rocher the advert promised, nor the champagne and canapés of the (sadly outdated) Ambassadorial stereotype.
But they had a point. It is one of the sad realities of Lebanon that the country of the world’s greatest hosts throws away a huge amount of food. Unnecessarily. Food that does not stop being Five Star when the breakfast buffet closes at 11, or when the guests at lavish catered events have had their fill.
Yet many in Lebanon, a middle income country, go hungry. According to the Arab Human Development Report, Lebanon is moving away from the first MDG (eradicating hunger), one of the only countries in the world where under-nourishment increased from 1990 to 2004.
One third of food production is lost or wasted annually. So we were proud to partner with FERN (Food Establishments Recycling Nutrients) and local hotels to highlight ways in which the private sector, civil society and individuals can confront this problem. FERN closes the loop between food production and food waste, by composting fertilizer, donating leftover meals, increasing recycling rates, and creating employment opportunities. They hope that participating food establishments will form a city-based network, co-operating to create and communicate new behaviour.
So, with media present, we enjoyed an excellent leftover brunch yesterday, none of it from bins. It was great to have Gordon Campbell Gray, rockstar hotelier, join us to show that quality does not need to mean quantity.
Social entrepreneurship is alive and kicking in Beirut. Audacious optimists and visionaries working for Lebanon2020. Social media is a massive part of the effort. I encourage you to take a look at FERN international.
Your Excellency Mr. Fletcher,
Thank you for not taking the hero route and instead confessed to your moment’s hesitation of eating out of bins and the ‘sadly outdated’ champagne and canapés of the Ambassadorial stereotype. I have to admit that if i could find champagne and canapés in bins, i would be eating out of there. And finding champagne and canapés in Lebanon’s bins is not too far fetched. This reflects poorly on our lavish Lebanese lifestyle, but on a positive note and as your blog has highlighted, this means that there is more food that could be recycled or used to feed the poor ‘one meal at a time.’
Both the FERN and FoodBlessed organizations seem to be doing great and i would like to stress the importance of collaboration across like-minded organizations that share similar goals. On that token, whilst i was doing my master’s in London as a Chevening scholar i learned about The People’s Kitchen, where they spread awareness about food wasting and share how to open your own People’s Kitchen! So it’s all about sharing, collaborating, and networking to become more efficient and effective.
Below is their website’s URL for anyone who wants to get inspired from a simple idea that could have a huge impact:
http://thepeopleskitchen.org/2011/03/set-up-your-peoples-kitchen/
Leena Ksaifi
ps. You should be inspired by her Majesty the Queen’s skydiving performance for the Olympics and do it!
Dear Mr. Tom,
One couldn’t be more delighted to read such a post.
I salute the British Embassy in Beirut for taking such sustainable steps towards the future!
That said, you’d be surprised to know that FERN is not the only one responsible for closing the loop between food production and food waste.
Indeed, this same loop that you have mentioned in your blog has been a major part of what our initiative ‘foodblessed’ does. (www.facebok.com/foodblessed)
De facto, foodblessed as an initiative was born at the same period as FERN, even slightly before that. Indeed, we have sat with FERN before they were a legal entity and were happy to find out that they were the missing link to the sickly loop in Lebanon’s food cycle.
You see what foodblessed does is that it takes surplus food from events and provide these to NGOs that already work with the needy. Nothing new, right?
But how we do that is new–you see we work on the corporate social responsibility of our partners.
In a nutshell:
Mission, Vision & Values
Foodblessed is a pioneering national hunger-relief initiative led by a group of passionate volunteers driven by the need to reduce hunger in Lebanon.
Our MISSION is ‘feeding the hungry, one meal at a time!’ by creating a nationwide sustainable network that connects relevant Socially Responsible Companies – such as restaurants, catering agencies and other food providers – with the Local Community –such as local citizens and NGOs- towards achieving our VISION of a hunger-free Lebanon.
Transparency, Tolerance, and Collaboration are amongst our core VALUES.
When we met with FERN, we were happy to know that while what we do is ‘feeding the hungry ‘wasted food’ i.e. food that would other ways be thrown away’, what they did was take the ‘waste food’ and make use of that.
And there you have it, one complete food cycle with minimum waste produces or left!
In 3 months, we were able to provide what’s shy of 1300 meals to people in need , most f these meals were coming from surplus food that would have otherwise been thrown away.
As one of the founders of foodblessed, I believe that since you have showed such zeal for FERN, foodblessed would also instill that same enthusiasm or so we hope!
Do get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and maybe see how we can partner together in ‘feeding the hungry, one meal at a time’.
foodblessed team: Maya, Renee, & Charles
You can find more here:
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/FoodBlessed
Follow us:https://twitter.com/foodblessed
Email us: info@foodblessed.org
foodblessed@gmail.com