Canadian Baptist Ministries is supporting Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development/Middle East Revive and Thrive (LSESD/MERATH) with a 9 month food assistance project in Zahle, Bekaa Governorate, and Rahbe, Akkar Governate, Lebanon.
Lebanon is in the fourth year of its severe economic collapse which has worsened the rates of unemployment, poverty, inflation, purchasing power and hunger. Lebanon’s 2023 Emergency Response Plan found that in January, 3.9 million people across the country needed some form of humanitarian assistance.
Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict in Syria over the past decade has resulted in an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon. This crisis has created a food security emergency for over 2 million people in Lebanon in 2023. Hunger in Lebanon is on the rise, and as of March 2023, Lebanon had one of the highest annual food inflation rates in the world. IPC projections suggest that crisis levels of food insecurity (IPC 3) will be felt by 38% of the Lebanese population and 53% of the Syrian refugee population this year.
This project aims to increase immediate consumption of food and reduce hunger by providing vulnerable Syrian refugee and Lebanese families with nine monthly food boxes. Each month households will receive one or two boxes (amount depending on household size) of food consisting of rice, spaghetti, bulgur wheat, tuna, sardines, chickpeas, beans, lentils, oil, sugar, tomato paste, salt and flour. The project plans to reach 7,691 people (1,831 households) with this assistance.