The ‘Uber’ Style Technique of Feeding the Poor of Egypt
In 2013, Mostafa found himself in the same boat that most any recent university graduate will find themselves in- job searching. Day and night he slaved away at his laptop looking for work in his field of expertise. In his tireless search he noticed something. He noticed people around him diving through dumpsters for food and his heart was disturbed.
“It’s a job to job search. But sometimes, you need a break. So use your breaks wisely. Use them to focus on someone else and God will help you in your job search. I job searched and started this project, and two months later I found a great job.”
Mostafa and Fatma live in the middle class area of Maadi, in Cairo, but even in 2013 when Mostafa was looking for a job, there were poor people looking for something to eat in dumpsters. And it disturbed Mostafa to the point that he felt compelled to do something about it. “We all have leftovers from restaurants or from houses, clean food that is wasted, so I thought why not connect the hungry people to people that have food.”
In his spare time, after spending some time job searching, Mostafa started a project called Fighting Hunger is Easy. He got the idea to design food boxes, went to a carpenter, and designed a box and installed it at one well-known Alexandria franchise restaurant. He bought the wood himself, which cost 100 Egyptian Pounds (10 EUR/$8) for one box.
Almost married now for one year, his wife is now passionate about what he’s passionate about: “After we married, every day after the honeymoon he worked tirelessly on his laptop for this project,” Fatma stated. And I said to him “What are you doing?” and he said “The boxes.” She told this memory with laughter in her voice. “And he worked on this project at his computer at the morning, at the afternoon, and at the night,” Fatma recalled in her broken English. “So I am involved with him. His passion is my passion.”
Mostafa cut in, “She helped me so much with Photoshop because she is so good with computers. She designed the logo and does all the computer work.”
When I asked him why he started Fighting Hunger is Easy, Mostafa was quick to state:
Because where we live, even though it’s a middle class area you see people eating out of dumpsters and it’s very sad. Old women and children, and it’s just sad. Every house or restaurant throws clean food away.
I’ve seen nicely dressed men who are so hungry, but they have too much pride to ask anyone for food. So he looks for food in dumpsters at night, when hardly anyone will see him. And I’ve seen this a few times and it bothered me.
I started installing boxes that look the same all over the country, in front of restaurants, asking the owners to keep the food clean every day. And whenever they have leftover food that they didn’t sell at the end of the day, they could just pack it nicely and put it in the box on the side of their restaurant. And anyone that’s passing by that’s hungry can open the box, take what they want and eat it, without having to feel any shame. So, it avoids embarrassment and food waste.
My first test food box was at a restaurant that has about 6 locations. And we came to find after some time that not only did people put their leftovers in the box, they bought extra meals to put in the box.
That restaurant owner and Facebook was a big part of the advertisement. And so, in the end the owner was winning because people who heard about Fighting Hunger is Easy on Facebook were buying more food from him, and the poor people were and still are winning because they are eating for free.
Then, restaurants started agreeing to let boxes go on the side of their restaurants; and owners paid for the box material themselves. It’s just like Uber. I just coordinate between the restaurant owner and the carpenter.
Though the project was started in Alexandria, Egypt, Mostafa was quick to point out that the project has successfully installed 684 boxes in 11 cities, Cairo and Alexandria having the most boxes.
So what’s the breakdown of ensuring that an operation like this is run correctly? Mostafa pointed out that there is a leader in each city. One person is in charge of marketing and of letting people know what Fighting Hunger is Easy is. And another person installs the boxes: “Mostly men do this because handy work is in involved in the box’s installation. And the Operation side is done mostly overseen by women. “They gather the statistics of the amount of food that goes in daily, they ensure that the food is clean and ready to eat, they check if the box is at the proper height, and so on. And then the box is installed, or moved, if it is not working in that area.”
He attributes the success of people knowing about Fighting Hunger is Easy to social media, to Facebook:
I made a Facebook page, which really boosted things. Then I made a free website and connected it to the Facebook page. But, most of my views and communication is through Facebook.
And then I got some media connections. Newspapers and national television interviewed me a lot via the phone. Once, after an interview, I had 13,000 page likes.
Facebook is also the main place that people write in for getting boxes. A friend, my wife, and I all have access to the page that way when someone writes they will get a quick response.
Looking ahead to the future of Fighting Hunger is Easy, he mentioned, “Right now my wife and I are trying to expand with fridges, instead of just boxes. A fridge makes the food safer and will encourage more people to come, which is also good for the store or restaurant owner. A fridge is cheap, around 1500 Egyptian Pounds (150 Euros/ $119). And the owner is going to win because people are going to buy more food from him, so it’s a win-win for everyone”:
My hope is that Fighting Hunger is Easy will become an international food icon. After I started with the project here, some people in Saudi Arabia contacted me though Facebook and wanted to do the same. They bought fridges, took our logo, and followed our coding system because we know where each box is through a number system. Now, we complete each other.
It would be great if this happened in Europe too. We have hungry people everywhere. Why not connect hungry people around the world with clean leftovers and this could be a unique food project for humanity.
The logo is a pigeon holding some grain in its mouth. That logo could become an international symbol that when people see it they will know what it means: feeding the hungry.
Mostafa had some advice to give to people that are job searching, he stated, “It’s a job to job search. But sometimes, you need a break. So use your breaks wisely. Use them to focus on someone else and God will help you in your job search. I job searched and started this project, and two months later I found a great job.”
I turned my last question to the Egyptian economy and asked “Why is Egypt important to the world? Why should the world care about Egypt?”:
Well, if you look at it historically. Egypt has been around for over 5,000 years, Mostafa pointed out.” It’s has been unified in the sense that Egypt has always been Egypt and nothing has happened to its identity. Hopefully it stays the same “In Shah Allah.” Having the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean, and the Nile- as we say the ‘Cradle of Civilization,’ hopefully in the present we can be the same again.
After the revolution things have been bad. But now things are picking up and hopefully things will get better. And the pickup will put Egypt back on top of the Middle East, and hopefully it can be a significant part of the world.
Tourism is down now and we need Western tourism. But hopefully, all of the investments will pick up the economy.
Fatma who is strong in her Muslim faith has a heart to help people. When asked, “what does it give you to give to people?” Her closing words were: “I love to give to anyone, to the poor, to the rich, to anyone. Because I know that people don’t need more things. We just need to give instead of receiving all the time.”
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You can find the article from the Telegraph by clicking here.
In Shah Allah- means "God willing."