The UAE Food Bank has launched its second branch on the occasion of World Food Day, after a successful pilot project that oversaw the donation of 136 tonnes of food items within a six month period.

The function was inaugurated by Hussain Nasser Lootah, the director general of Dubai Municipality and deputy chairman of the Board of Trustees of UAE Food Bank. This new branch will be sponsored, permanently by Easa Al Gurg Charity Foundation. The Charity will also fund another Food Bank branch in Al Muhaisnah, later this year.

Lootah revealed that approximately 136 tonnes of food that was surplus to food businesses was donated to those in need through the branch in Al Quoz since its opening last April.

“This shows the support we have received from the food businesses. Instead of wasting surplus food, they have donated it through the Food Bank with the help of registered charities.”

There are agreements in place with 16 entities that include 13 hypermarket chains and food chains that have made contributions to the Food Bank through various charities.

By next year, the UAE Food Bank will start supplying food items to refugee camps and poor communities in other countries, Lootah told Gulf News.

In a statement issued on the occasion, Shaikha Hind Bint Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the UAE Food Bank and wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said: “The UAE Food Bank is one of the most important values of giving by the people of the UAE and is moving forward to be one of the largest humanitarian establishments in the country, in a way that translates the objectives of the UAE leadership to spread the virtue of charity and establish a culture of giving within the framework of official and people’s participation.”