Saudi Arabia’s charity sector is playing a great role in the fight to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Saudi Food Bank “Eta'am,” the first of its kind in the Gulf region, has helped feed over 175,000 families, some of who are in lockdown neighborhoods.
Eta’am is an organization that collects quality meals with the help of regular employees and volunteers, and delivers them to beneficiaries recommended by charities in the utmost of privacy.
The food bank's Secretary-General Faisal Shoshan revealed that the organization is working on a new relief project that reaches beneficiaries in Riyadh, the Eastern Province, and Makkah. The project also has plans to expand to cover more areas in the Kingdom.
This week, Eta’am distributed 700 food baskets to residents at the Atheer neighborhood in Dammam, which has been under lockdown for about 7 days.
“To date, we have distributed more than 18,000 food baskets to more than 18,000 homes,” Shoshan said, revealing that the organization’s target is at 50,000 families which will be accomplished in the second week of the holy month of fasting, Ramadan.
Shoshan also revealed that Eta’am has launched a new campaign that offers services on an online application platform and allows for donating meals that are later distributed to beneficiaries by Eta’am.
Eta’am had launched a campaign, “Takafuluna Saadatouna,” which targeted individuals who would buy food baskets directly on the organization’s website to donate to the need. Before that, Eta’am prepared and distributed 2200 food baskets to beneficiaries in Riyadh and the Eastern Province.