Egyptian Food Bank

With social distancing and the lockdown enforced and precautionary measures to face up to the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide, millions of families are being threatened with poverty as their sources of income vanish and workplaces close. Daily workers and the families of those who do not have fixed jobs often suffer the most, which is the exact case in Egypt.Having this being said, Egyptian Food Bank (EFB) has started a campaign under the name “Supporting Day Labor, a Social Responsibility” on March 20^th. The deterioration of the economic status due to COVID-19 has affected a large number of employees and workers, especially day labor.The main objective of the campaign was to provide Relief Support to the daily workers whose daily pattern was and will still be negatively affected more than any other category of labor force in Egypt after Covid-19 spread.

Donations raised through GlobalGiving platform , along with ford matching campaign shall enable 7,965 of these daily workers’ households, each household averaging 4 individuals, totaling to 31,860 beneficiaries living across Egypt governorates to meet their minimum food requirements(raw food components) during the COVID-19 partial lock-down period, and ensure that vulnerable households do not resort to engaging in harmful coping strategies, that would eventually expose them to risk of infection; such as selling off family assets, social disorder, stealing, gambling, begging for money and thus contributing to an overall positive impact on the community.In addition to delivering relief to those people efficiently, effectively, applying social distancing procedures.

Beneficiary targeting and selection criteria

EFB has already filtered it’s data base for Daily Labor’s selection, additionally have added a huge number of beneficiaries who call directly for help through the Call Center (and fall under the conditions and criteria of choice). The target beneficiaries are being selected through:

• Scanning the poverty-stricken districts/villages/neighborhoods across Egypt.

• Families with a sole food provider who falls under the criteria of Daily Labor.

Upon verification, relief distribution officers head directly to the affected areas and start distributing the boxes through EFB’s network of smaller NGOs. Each registered beneficiary shall be expected to produce the National ID as proof of identity.

Important notes:

• All supplies and components that are targeted to reach the beneficiaries are packed and stored in EFB factory then delivered for safe and secure storage at each governorate NGO. All precautions are being considered throughout the process of packaging, delivering and distributing in terms of the WHO standards of Hygiene and general health.
• Pre-distribution, EFB communicated with NGO departments to inform them with the delivery and distribution date and consequently inform the beneficiaries.

• All food items passed through the procedure of checking

Links:

• Sky News Arabia
• AlHadath
• Modern Egypt