Mar 31, 2019

The Egyptian activist Menna Shahin has a solution for helping to resolve Egypt’s twin problems of fighting hunger and disposing of food waste: register through an app, put your surplus or soon-to-expire food on display and have a charity pick it up and pass it on to people in need.

That app is Shahin's brainchild, Tekeya, which she launched in February. The application allows restaurants and shops to donate or sell at reduced prices their suitable leftovers from banquet tables and shelves. Supermarkets can donate food about to expire, and starred hotels can give away unconsumed food from events held on their premises. The charities that pick up the donations from shops, restaurants, hotels and other donors either distribute the food to the poor directly or use it to put together meals they then serve in their kitchens.

“The app will help reduce food surplus in Egypt and will deliver it to those in need, either at token prices or for free,” Shahin told Al-Monitor.

“Many restaurants and hotels throw away food at the end of the day and prepare fresh dishes the next day,” Shahin said. “Supermarkets simply discard the products they cannot sell because the expiry date is too close, so I started to think of a way to deliver these products and foods to charities to help those in need.”

According to the Food Sustainability Index, a project of the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition, Egypt tops the list of Arab countries in terms of food waste. About one-third of all food grown in the Middle East and North Africa is lost or wasted, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. In Egypt, that amounts to an estimated 50 kilograms of food per person per year. In April 2018, the Food and Agriculture (FAO) organization, in cooperation with the Egyptian Food Bank, launched an awareness campaign to reduce food waste and contribute to eradicating hunger in Egypt.