Muscat: Al Bustan Palace, a Ritz-Carlton Hotel, has once again teamed up with a group of Muscat’s most prominent hotels to mark World Food Day, celebrated annually on 16th October. In keeping with the United Nations’ #ZeroHunger and healthy eating theme, the resorts’ Ladies and Gentlemen joined over 120 volunteers from Shangri-la Barr Al Jissah, Muscat, Kempinski Hotel Muscat, Sheraton Oman Hotel and W Muscat in a food cart race at LuLu Hypermarket in Darsait.
With a total fundraising from all hotels equally divided, the teams raced through the store to fill their carts with as much food as possible in 10 minutes. Over 200 boxes were then packed and donated to Oman Food Bank Charity Association, which caters to the underprivileged families in the Sultanate. In its fourth annual edition this year, the teams managed to raise a grand total of OMR 4328, where Kempinski Hotel Muscat contributed 1116 OMR, followed by 1064 OMR from Sheraton Oman Hotel, which were collected through a series of charitable initiatives including flea markets, ice cream and popcorn corners and salary contributions.
Nabil Al Zadjali, General Manager of Al Bustan Palace said “Helping families in our community is a cause that is very near and dear to our hearts given our line of business. We have adopted sustainable methods to reduce and dispose food waste and firmly believe that the hospitality industry plays an integral role in championing this important cause that impacts every country around the globe. We hope that our actions will inspire others to follow our footsteps so that zero hunger can become a living reality.”
General Manager of Kempinski Hotel Muscat, Carsten Wiegandt said, “It is our philosophy at Kempinski Hotels and through our partnership with BE Health, which is a programme created to spread health and to bring all hotels under one corporate responsibility mission of caring for people’s health from the workplace to the local communities that we operate in. We believe in our future generations and it is a pleasure to be part of World Food Day.”
Encouraging the spirit of giving, this initiative demonstrated the influential role that the hospitality industry plays in highlighting important issues like food waste and the environmental impact. Putting a fun spin on a very important topic, World Food Day provides the impetus to join in the bigger picture.
Engineer Ibrahim Al Hosni, Chairman at Oman Food Bank said: “Our mission is to improve the lives of those who are less fortunate here in the Sultanate, through positive and constructive partnerships. As we are a community-based organization, we partner with many establishments locally in order to join hands with all the components of society. It is a pleasure to have such hotels on board.”
World Food Day commemorates the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 1945. One of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar, hundreds of events and outreach activities bring together governments, businesses, NGOs, media, and general public to promote worldwide awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger and for the need to ensure healthy diets for all.
