35,000 Needy Families to Receive Food Supplies in Beni Mellal

Rabat – The city of Beni Mellal, near Marrakech, commenced the second phase of a food distribution program today, April 3.

The second phase of the program aims to benefit 35,000 low-income families as part of the nationwide efforts to mitigate the socio-economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in Morocco.

The humanitarian initiative comes with the objective of alleviating the suffering of families with unstructured jobs who have been adversely impacted by the state of health emergency, which significantly restricts movement.

Local authorities are actively participating in the humanitarian operation to organize and manage the distribution of food directly to families in need, following strict preventive measures and reminding beneficiaries of the state of emergency rules.

The first phase of food distribution benefitted more than 15,000 families throughout the Beni Mellal-Khenifra region, including workers on leave because of the coronavirus crisis.

The operation has served families in small villages located in mountainous areas, including Tizi Nisli, Boutferda, Zaouiat Cheikh, and El Ksiba.

In a similar operation, the city council of Tangier deployed $1.6 million to purchase necessary food for the region’s eight provinces on March 30, in response to the state of health emergency.

Moroccan food companies have donated large quantities of food staples such as milk, oil, bottled water, sugar, tea, juice, and couscous.

“As part of the momentum of national solidarity and to help families in difficult situations in the current context, Centrale Danone, Lesieur Cristal, Ain Saiss, Agro Juice Processing, Sultan, and Dari have decided to make several millions of food products available to the authorities free of charge,” read a statement from participating companies.