Essa Khan, aged 33, who works as a daily-wage labourer is one of those persons who daily comes to free food centre being run by the Edhi Foundation at Aabpara as it helps him save some money out of his daily earning. He said it is not all about saving earning because sometimes when he does not find any work it becomes difficult for him to afford two-time meals a day.
The trend of setting up food outlets and restaurants has been fast gaining ground in the twin cities for the last many years and it is believed that large quantity of leftover food is thrown into garbage trolleys. Despite the fact that the concept of ‘Food Bank’ is getting popular all over the world especially in the developed countries, no serious effort has so far been made to promote this trend at least in big cities of the country.
The first food bank named St. Mary was set up in 1967 in Arizona that promoted this concept, which is aimed at providing free food to downtrodden segments who lack financial resources and find it hard to afford food prices.
“It would not be an exaggeration if we start recycling leftover food that would help provide food to thousands of people daily,” said Nazim Hussain, a hotel owner in Satellite Town area. He said though there can be many who would be ready to accept even used food out of hunger but in his personal view he does not think it appropriate, so they dispose of such food with the help of sweepers.
The Edhi Foundation introduced free food centres in the twin cities after which many other people and groups came forward and started providing free food at various places in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. There are also number of hotels and restaurants in areas like Peshawar Morr and Sector G-8/1 where owners provide food to people free of cost.
“The government must take initiative to provide technical and logistic assistance to various groups that can be helpful to launch banks all over the country especially in the big cities where thousands of people miss their meals due to financial constraints,” said Murtaza Abbasi, a social activist and educationist.
He said if all the relevant quarters make concerted efforts and share their expertise and assistance then it would be not so difficult to launch any food bank in the twin cities.
At the time when food inflation is increasing day by day in the society and huge number of people do not have a ‘luxury’ to enjoy two-time meals in a day it is highly unfortunate that leftover food is thrown into dunghills and garbage trolleys. So it is ripe time that relevant quarters put in best efforts for establishing food banks to provide marginalised people with some relief who have already many other hardships to tackle with.
Source: By Noor Aftab - Islamabad,Saturday, June 20, 2009 http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=184087
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