The neighborhood
fridge where surplus
becomes
solidarity.
The Problem
Lebanon. A sad reality. Too much wasted. Too many hungry.
701,828 tonnes
of food go to waste every year
1.17 million people
face acute food insecurity
It started in the back of her car.
Our founder, Nayla, used to drive around Beirut with her trunk full of snacks, handing them out to people sleeping on the street. Every night she went home thinking: this isn’t enough. Tomorrow they’ll
be hungry again.
So she put a fridge in her neighborhood.
That was 2019. Today, Berrad El Hay runs a community kitchen, three neighborhood fridges, and a school lunchbox program, powered by a 12 person team, 300+ volunteers, and a community that refuses to let anyone eat alone.
What We Do.
Every Single Day.
Every morning, near-expiry products arrive from supermarkets, restaurants, grocery shops, and events: unsold ready meals, surplus stock, and fresh vegetables that would otherwise be thrown out. Community members bring what they’ve cooked: sometimes one meal, sometimes a pot.
Everything goes into Matbakh El Hay, our community kitchen, where it’s repurposed, cooked, and reorganized into hot, hearty meals. Those meals are dispatched to all three fridges, every single day.
During the school year, we’re also busy packing lunchboxes and dispatching them to schools every single day.
Food Rescue
We collect surplus and near-expiry food from supermarkets, restaurants, caterers, and events, including fresh vegetables rescued from grocery shops before they go to waste.
Matbakh El Hay
Our community kitchen cooks, repurposes, and reorganizes rescued food into hot, hearty meals.
Community Fridges
Registered beneficiaries receive regular meals, and we always have extra meals ready for anyone in need who passes by. No one who reaches our fridges is turned away.
Fill Their Lunchboxes
2,100 lunchboxes a week to schoolchildren facing food insecurity.
Join Our Fight Against Food Waste.
There’s a place for you in this kitchen.
Whether you cook, donate, deliver, or spread the word, every person in this neighborhood has something to give.
If you’re a
household
Cook a pot of something and bring it. Donate ingredients. Share your leftovers. You don’t need a big gesture, just one extra portion.
If you’re a
business
Restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets, caterers. Your surplus doesn’t have to become waste. We’ll collect it, cook it, and make sure it reaches someone who needs it today.
The kitchen gets loud around 9AM.
That’s when the volunteers arrive. Most know exactly where everything goes.
Others find their place by the second hour.
By 11a.m., the whole building smells like home.
They’re cooking for 300 people. People they’ll never meet. But they add extra cinnamon anyway.
What a community did together in
2025
A 12-person team. 300+ volunteers.
A community that shows up, every day.
Tomorrow morning someone will open a fridge you helped fill
There are many ways to be part of this. Bring ingredients. Drop off leftovers. Cook a pot and bring it over. Or donate so we can keep doing this every single day, the kitchen running, the fridges stocked, and the lunchboxes packed.
Whatever you give goes directly into the kitchen. Into a lunchbox. Into a fridge that 300 people count on.