More than 6 million meals donated to the Zero Hunger global campaign since its start

Dubai, September 01, 2022: In partnership with United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dubai’s popular community supermarket Choithrams presents the 2022 edition of Zero Hunger global campaign. Under the theme, “Add Goodness to Meals”, an awareness and fundraising campaign will be rolled out between 1 September and 31 December 2022, and proceeds will go to WFP’s School Feeding Programmes in the Middle East region. 

Through its school feeding programmes, WFP ensures that school aged children have access to nutritious school meals and snacks, enabling them to develop in a healthy way and to focus on their education. Since 2015, Choithrams has supported WFP by donating more than 6 million school meals, and by advocating the Zero Hunger campaign to millions of UAE residents every year.  

L. T. Pagarani, Chairman of Choithrams said, “WFP’s School Feeding Programme creates significant savings for families with children. We believe school meals help relieve parents and vulnerable households from budgeting for lunches, which can be as much as 10 percent of their income. These meals keep children in school. This is yet another inspiration for our ‘Full of Goodness’ promise at Choithrams, and we are looking forward to making a meaningful contribution alongside our customers, partners and stakeholders.”

For every purchase of “Goodness Foods” products (marked with a special sticker), Choithrams pledges to donate up to AED 4 between 1 September and 31 December 2022.  The products may be purchased at its 28+ outlets in Dubai or online on Choithrams.com, as well as on popular food delivery apps.  

“As the number of children who are acutely malnourished is expected to continue to rise risking a lost generation unless action is taken to address poor nutrition among both children and mothers, Choithrams’ valuable support to WFP school feeding programmes in the Middle East region cannot be more timely. Globally, up to 60 million children could be acutely malnourished by end of 2022, and the mobilization of funds from the private sector partners is critical to help WFP address such significant challenges”, said Mageed Yahia, WFP Representative to the GCC. 

During the #ZeroHungerwithGoodness 4 months advocacy campaign on social media channels, Dubai’s popular clinical dietician Mitun De Sarkar will be presenting actionable insights and ideas around the theme ‘Add Goodness to Meals’. Mitun will be highlighting key ingredients used by WFP for school meals, helping create a strong sense of community and solidarity between donors and supporters in UAE and the beneficiaries of the School Feeding Programmes in the Middle East.  In 2021, Mitun’s “What’s for Lunch?” video series in support of the Zero Hunger campaign were viewed by thousands of followers.