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SPRING/SUMMER 2020
The Lebanese Food Bank: Give and You Will be Given
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spiraling financial crisis against the backdrop of a politically troubled Lebanon has hit the country’s weakest: the poor. “Not even the poor,” said Kamal Sinno ‘57, the tycoon behind Toy Market in Lebanon, “the desperate.” Sinno paused, gathering emotions threatening to erupt. “There are Lebanese who are hungry,” he said quietly. “And there is nothing more painful than hunger and nothing that makes a human more desperate than hunger.” According to the World Bank, more than 200,000 Lebanese have fallen into abject poverty since 2011 and has warned that the poverty rate is threatening to increase from a third to half of the population. As the founder and head of the Lebanese Food Bank (LFB), the 82-year old Sinno is progressively feeling the weight of the increasing spread of poverty in the country. “It used to be that weddings and events were plentiful,” he said, “and restaurants were full.” Since 2011, LFB has been sending refrigerated vans at midnight to various venues to gather and package the food surplus (after being tested by LFB experts for freshness because the “the poor also have the right to good food”) and distribute them to about 80 NGOs feeding 3,000 people every day. It wasn’t long before Sinno realized that the needs of the impoverished, most of whom are elderly, disabled, chronically ill, single mothers, and orphans extend much more than a daily cooked meal. And so LFB also began distributing dry food parcels throughout the country. It all started when Sinno inquired about the destiny of unconsumed food in restaurants. The answer: the food was buried behind venue lots or tossed in big garbage dumpsters. This is absurd, thought Sinno. So many Lebanese are hungry. A successful businessman, Sinno had many contacts. And he used them. Before long, he had established an NGO headed by well-known peers committed to fighting hunger and food waste in Lebanon. The LFB developed as part of the Food Banking Regional Network in Dubai, which in turn, is part of the Global Banking Network. Back then, Sinno’s goal was straightforward: Eradicate hunger in Lebanon by 2020. But with the ongoing economic crisis
and political turmoil in full swing, that goal doesn’t seem likely. Unfazed, LFB doubled its efforts. His phone at his Toy Market office – usually ringing off the hook – is silent. Business has more or less come to a stop. After an hour or so dutifully sitting at his desk, Sinno moves to an upper floor – the hub of LFB and the heart of the NGO, where he would spend the rest of the day. It is hard to believe that once Sinno was a young rebel of sorts in his youth. A youngster who loathed learning maths and sciences. His brain was in continuous motion developing various business projects. He happily joined in various classroom frolics creating havoc for some of the teachers, mostly the unsuspecting foreign ones. Outside class, the young heavyweight bodybuilder was easily riled up and would, at times, get into fights. But the young rebel also had a big heart – one which would ultimately lead him even to befriend his fighting rivals. His main preoccupation, however, was money-making ventures – even to the extent of charging his parents for the privilege of seeing photographs of his brother, who was studying abroad at the time. (Sinno had convinced his brother to mail personal pictures to him only). During the summer days, he would charge local children to ride his sister’s brand new bicycle. At 15, he learned his first lesson in humility. The son of a tobacco company owner, Sinno enjoyed a comfortable life. But he was aching to work in a business
