Pakistan is one of the most food insecure countries of the world. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (2017) reports that Pakistan produces food sufficient to meet the needs of 180 million people yet half of the households are food insecure. According to Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (2012–13), about 45% of Pakistani children suffer from chronic malnutrition and 11% are acutely malnourished hence need urgent treatment. One of the reasons for this grave situation is the rising cost of food staples (80% rise between 2007–2017). Pakistanis spend about half of their income on food only. Another reason is food wastage (Hussain & Kumar, 2012) as 40% of food produced in the country is wasted.

The importance of provision of food has always been emphasized in the history of public health and health promotion. Provision of food was focused on in the Alma Ata declaration (WHO, 1978). The Ottawa Charter of health promotion has also identified food as one of the prerequisites to health (WHO, 1986). Hence in the current circumstances of rising hunger and an undoubted need to address it, the broader concept of Rizq—food is a blessing, fits in well. This initiative was inspired by a role model. The mother of one of the founders had been feeding the needy for many years on her own. It was realized that this individual effort was not enough to combat the size of the problem and collective, organized and sustainable initiative was the need.

Rizq aims to channel excess food to the ones who need it. The initiative is organized such that different sectors of community are involved voluntarily and the dignity of the beneficiaries is preserved.

Its specific objectives are:

• To decrease food wastage
• To utilize the rescued food and feed the deprived, malnourished people with a special focus on children

The Rizq initiative has a very systematic way of excess food collection, storage, packing and re-distribution to the needy. New features are always being added to improve its efficiency and effectiveness. Different activities are well coordinated by impressive social networking. All the activities are carried out by the management with the help of over 700 volunteers:

Identification and registration of needy families

Rizq teams survey deprived communities of Lahore and Islamabad cities to identify the needy families and to assess feasibility of its services. Rizq has developed a partnership with an NGO to help identify nutritional deficiencies and needs among the communities. The families then have to visit the “food bank” to register themselves for food support. The information given by them is verified. There are two food banks so far one in Islamabad and the other in Lahore.

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The food drives are advertised on the Rizq website and official face book page and people/businesses are requested to contact them if they have excess food or want to donate food. It is worth mentioning that many food businesses now have partnership with Rizq and regularly provide excess food for the services.

Collection, testing, packing and selling of food

The food is collected on customized rickshaws (called “rizqshaws”) in big containers and is brought to the food banks from all over the city. The food then is tested for its quality. The food fit for consumption is then sorted and packed as healthy meals. The meals are designed according to the prevalent nutritional deficiencies identified during the initial survey of the community. Finally, it is sold at a minimum price and in extreme cases is given free of cost. The food banks work in two shifts one from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm and the other from 3:00 to 4:00 pm. The food bank is offering sustainable services through the current system.

Lunch boxes for school students

Rizq has adopted two schools and provides free healthy lunch boxes to underprivileged school children.

Capacity building

The food bank also serves as a community center. The families who register with it are spoke with to find out about the reasons for their deprivation. If there are potential earners in the family, they are helped in getting vocational training and once they have a job and can afford their food, they are no longer entitled to the service. The volunteers and the Rizq management have meetings to plan new features and activities to further improve their services.

Public awareness activities/social marketing

Rizq management with its volunteers not only uses the social media very effectively for its goals but also arranges different social events, walks and talks at educational institutions in order to create public awareness about food wastage and shortage and also to create a sense of social responsibility.

Future plans

Rizq plans to establish 50 more food banks across the country covering the most deprived pockets of population. It also plans to expand its food storage and distribution capacity (from 200 to 2000 meals a day) by having cold storage and a cold storage van. The ultimate goal is to make Pakistan a zero hunger country.

Rizq initiative is underpinned by the health promotion principles of community participation, community empowerment and equity. It has involved many volunteers from the community through an effective use of social media. The volunteers have been a multiplying factor for both for the inputs from the community and outputs of the services by Rizq as each one of them campaigns for the initiative and creates public awareness about the problem of food wastage and motivates others to join hands with Rizq. Rizq is adding its share to reduce the nutritional inequalities between the privileged and deprived communities as it focuses on the latter. Rizq is one of the very few social initiatives who have displayed sustainability with incremental expansion of its services without any foreign funding. It is also empowers the communities it serves by helping in their capacity building through vocational training. Rizq has displayed an effective use of social marketing-a key strategy for health promotion. It has proved to be a successful model of social entrepreneurship where human rights and dignity are a priority.

• For more details see,  Rizq. (2018) We are people powered movement united to end our collective hunger Available from: https://www.facebook.com/Rizq.Sharefood/

• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. (2017). The state of food security and nutrition in the world. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/state-of-food-security-nutrition/en/

• Hussain, A., & Kumar, J. (2012). Status and factors of food security in Pakistan. International Journal of Development Issues, 11(2), 164–185.

• World Health Organization. (1978). Declaration of Alma-Ata. International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, 6–12 September.

• World Health Organization. (1986). The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. First International Conference on Health Promotion, Ottawa, 21 November 1986. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/healthpromotion/conferences/previous/ottawa/en/