Ministry of Agriculture and UN World Food Programme (WFP) launched two projects within the national "No Food Waste Initiative" aimed to address food waste challenge and priorities set by National Food Security Strategy (2021-2030). The two projects seek to "institutionalize" work, strengthen governance of food waste management, and launch innovative solutions in this field, according to a ministry statement on Wednesday. The first project aims to launch an innovative "hackathon" competition with the Swiss SEWAS, an institution specialized in implementing projects that support non-profit ideas to maintain sustainability and provide creative solutions to natural resource challenges. Small and medium enterprises, individuals, and universities will participate in the hackathon, that will be empowered and supported to develop and expand their innovative ideas, which would contribute to reducing food waste. Meanwhile, the second project, which comes within framework of Food Waste Management Enhancement Project, includes a partnership with Basmat-Sunaa Alhayat Charitable Organisation, as the association is tasked to collect excess food from hotels and redistributes it to underprivileged people. Speaking during the launching ceremony, Minister of Agriculture, Khalid Hneifat, stressed the ministry's commitment to implementing projects and activities to enhance food security in line with National Food Security Strategy and Economic Modernization Vision (EMV), stressing the importance of dealing with food waste as a major challenge, especially in light of the Kingdom's limited resources. For his part, the WFP Representative and Country Director in Jordan, Alberto Correia Mendes, stressed the WFP's "firm commitment to continuing support to the Jordanian government to activating the National Food Security Strategy, as reducing food waste is considered a pivotal pillar of the security strategy. Volume of food waste in Jordan is estimated at about 93 kilograms per capita annually, which is about 9,55,000 tonnes of food, enough to cover the food needs of about 1.5 million people for an entire year, official data showed.
Source: Jordan News Agency