Red Sea Mall launches food saving campaign with Eta’am

In a leading initiative towards community service Jeddah-based Red Sea Mall management has signed a corporation agreement with a philanthropy organisation Eta’am to raise food saving awareness.

Etaam intends to provide six food-saving booths at Red Sea Mall’s food court area to raise awareness, thereby eliminating food wastage and its negative consequences on religious, social, humanitarian, health and environmental level.

“The amount of food waste has exceeded 6,000 tons daily, 60% of which consists of food, only in Jeddah, according to statistic study published last month. Choosing to place our food saving booths at Red Sea Mall was due to our recognition that it is the biggest and most famous shopping mall in Jeddah. Therefore, launching our campaign from here will grant us to reach the widest range of audience, including from locals and expatriates,” says Majed Al Ghamlas, deputy executive manager of Eta’am.

The agreement is to include orientation on food preserving methods through awareness messages and training programmes, thereby cultivating a sense of responsibility and realisation among mall visitors in order to reduce the percentage of food waste and restrain environmental pollution as a result of food dump.

“All society members should cooperate and put a valid collaborative effort to stop this phenomenon, especially so we can donate the food waste directly to charity, instead of throwing it away,” adds Mohammad IB Alawi, CEO of Red Sea Markets Co., the owner company of Red Sea Mall.

“Our Islamic principles prevent us from reckless food wasting, teaching us to preserve our blessings. But due to high percentage of excess food in Jeddah, we decided to launch this initiative. We intend to continue our cooperation with Eta’am and invest in more such philanthropic initiatives to ensure positive benefits for mall visitors, and people of Jeddah,” Alawi concludes.