6,000 tons of food ‘go to waste dumps in Jeddah each day’

Saudi Gazette report JEDDAH — In a leading community service initiative, the Red Sea Mall management has signed a cooperation agreement with the philanthropic group Etaam to created awareness on the importance of food saving. The organization plans to set up six food saving booths at Red Sea Mall's food court to eliminate food wasting habits. The initiative intends to raise public awareness about food waste and its negative consequences on religious, social, humanitarian, health and environmental level through providing accessible means inside the mall to encourage the public to take an active role in sparing their excess food. Commenting on the agreement during a signing event, Majed Al-Ghamlas, deputy executive manager of Etaam said: "The amount of food waste in Jeddah alone has exceeded 6,000 tons daily, 60 percent of which is excess food. We chose Red Sea Mall to place our food saving booths due to our recognition that ... launching a campaign from here will help us reach the widest range of audience." The agreement covers orientation on food preserving methods through awareness messages and training programs. Mohamed Al-Alwi, CEO of the Red Sea Markets, said: "All members of society should cooperate and put in a valid collaborative ceffort to stop this phenomenon, especially that we can invest the food waste and direct it to charity, instead of throwing it away." Al-Alwi added: "Our Islamic religion prevents us from reckless food wastage. It persuades us to preserve our blessings, but the high percentage of excess food in Jeddah motivated us to launch this initiative. We intend to continue our cooperation with Etaam and invest in more philanthropy initiatives."