RIYADH: A Riyadh charity is distributing 1,000 meals a day to underprivileged families who have been badly affected by the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Founded by Riyadh’s governor, Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz, the Khairat program helps ensure that low-income families in the Kingdom’s capital have access to two full, healthy, and balanced meals a day, taking care of not only the cooking process, but also the distribution to those in need.
Abdullah Al-Sebai, the general supervisor of Khairat, told Arab News that the program was initially established in 2018 as a means of collecting leftover food from banquet halls, weddings, and other major events where a surplus tends to be left.
“Our team would collect the leftover food from these events, package it up neatly, and distribute it to families in need,” he said.
However, once the pandemic shut down those large-scale gatherings, the team at Khairat quickly found a solution that would ensure those families would not be left in the lurch.
“With the green light from Prince Faisal, we established a professional relationship with a kitchen belonging to the charity Al-Melwan, who have employed seven Saudi women to cook the necessary meals for distribution,” Al-Sebai added. “Khairat purchased the meals from them and is responsible for the delivery on a daily basis.”
Once the food has been prepared by the team at Al-Melwan’s kitchen, Al-Sebai said that the meals go out twice a day — 500 lunches and 500 dinners, all delivered within half an hour to the families that the charity has had longstanding dealings with.
The initiative, which kicked off on Feb. 14, was planned to run for 30 days, but could be extended.
“We intend to do whatever we can to ensure that these families aren’t in any danger due to the pandemic,” he said.
To maintain their services alongside Al-Melwan’s, the charity also coordinated with a number of restaurants to provide meals, and private entities that have also contributed to their food distribution. Over 27,000 meals were distributed to around 4,500 families in 13 neighborhoods across Riyadh between Feb. 12-28 as a result.
Khairat is accepting donations, both in the form of monetary contributions, and applications from donors such as banquet halls, hotels, and other event-hosting venues, on their website, https://khiyrat.org.sa/en/.
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