SAUDI ARABIA

Tons of surplus food distributed among the needy in Makkah

Over 267,000 people benefited from philanthropic service during Haj

September 15, 2018
Volunteers from charitable organizations distribute meals among the needy in Makkah during the Haj season.
Volunteers from charitable organizations distribute meals among the needy in Makkah during the Haj season.

Saudi Gazette report

MAKKAH
— The cash value of surplus food distributed among the needy in Makkah during the just-concluded Haj season was estimated to be more than SR2.56 million, according to a report in Makkah daily on Saturday.

The surplus food was distributed among 47 districts in the holy city benefiting more than 267,000 people.

Ahmed Al-Matrafi, chairman of Ikram Welfare Society to preserve and distribute surplus food, said for the first time the society received from excess food of a number of local Haj companies, which it had distributed among more than 47,000 beneficiaries.

He said there were 146.91 tons of excess food donated by a number of charity organizations and other bodies during the Haj season.

Matrafi said all local Haj companies promised to send to the society any surplus food they may have during the next Haj season.

"We are liaising with rest houses, wedding halls, hotels in the central area around the Grand Mosque, security organs and others to collect large quantities of surplus food that would otherwise go to waste," he said.

Matrafi said the food would be distributed among the poor and needy families in Makkah within one to two hours.

Meanwhile, fraudulent brokers and dishonest people usurped food donated free of charge by philanthropists to the guests of God in the holy sites. The brokers then sold the food items to the pilgrims at high prices.

Philanthropists would donate meals to charity organizations, which would take the meals on trucks to the holy sites to distribute them among the pilgrims.

According to local daily Al-Madina, a number of African men and women living in Makkah would take free food posing as pilgrims and then sell them to others.

These people stand in lines before the trucks to obtain their share of food, which they will sell to fraudulent brokers at low prices.

A number of sheikhs and preachers have denounced this practice and said food donated to the pilgrims should not be given to the undeserving people who would sell them for cash.

Sheikh Mohammed Al-Zahrani, imam of the Miqat Mosque in Jaaranah, said it is totally wrong to sell the food donated to the pilgrims.

"The donor organizations should hire people to supervise the distribution of food so that it goes to deserving pilgrims," he said.

He said most of the people who queued up before the food trucks were from poor African communities living in Makkah. He asked the municipality to apprehend and hand them over to the concerned authorities.

Ihsan Bin Saleh Al-Muataz, a staff member of Umm Al-Qura University, attributed the phenomenon to the large quantities of food being donated by philanthropists to the pilgrims.

He said there should be comprehensive supervision of the distribution process so that donated food would not fall in the wrong hands.


September 15, 2018
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