Supporting sustainable food relief in Lebanon
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Who Is The Great Oven?
The Great Oven (G.O.) provides sustainable food relief and creative community building in places of need, from refugee camps and war-torn cities to countries in crisis. We do this by leveraging the power of cooking and art as means of promoting community cohesion and resilience. This takes place across three core pillars: food relief, peacebuilding activities and events, and training and business development.
We do not follow the path of traditional food relief. We are not in the business of temporary handouts. Our ovens are designed to feed many people, by empowering communities to feed themselves sustainably.
Our Work To Date
Over the past 6 years, The Great Oven’s work has taken place in Lebanon, a country facing a soaring food crisis exacerbated by political corruption and an economy in free fall. With the highest number of refugees per capita in the world and an additional 300,000 displaced by the 2020 Beirut Blast, the need for food relief and reconstruction efforts in Lebanon has reached unprecedented levels. This emergency is compounded by ongoing social tension, division and conflict characterised by sectarianism.
The Great Oven has responded to these challenges by installing giant community ovens in areas of critical need. Six of our ovens are operational across Lebanon including the unofficial camps of the Beqaa Valley where they feed Syrian and Palestinian refugees – and throughout Beirut, in the wake of the blast.
Across our oven sites, we start with the inherently creative act of cooking and move beyond. We harness the impact of art in its many forms from painting to music, constructing safe spaces for the development of peaceful communities.
The Great Oven creates job opportunities in places where employment prospects are scarce. We aim to nurture recipients of aid through training and mentorship, encouraging these talented individuals as they grow into G.O. ambassadors and leaders in their communities. This step acts as a vital bridge between short-term humanitarian relief and the promotion of longer-term development.
What Is This GoFundMe For?
In 2020, following the devastating impact of the Beirut Blast, we created this GoFundMe page to raise money for The Great Oven’s essential food relief operations across the city.
In 2024, we have relaunched our GoFundMe fundraiser to help raise emergency funds as we find ourselves in a critical moment in Lebanon. Due to unforeseen circumstances, funding that our Lebanese team depends on has fallen through on short notice, which means we are turning to our network to raise what we can as a bridge to more sustainable sources of funding.
If you or anyone you know is interested and able to donate to our operational costs, however small, we would be eternally grateful.
We also welcome any potential partners looking to collaborate on our mission to uphold communities across Lebanon – please do get in touch by clicking the 'contact' button below if you would like to learn more about opportunities to invest in our work.
Thank you in advance for your kindness and support!
To find out more about our organisation, please visit our website or Instagram via the links below:
Website: https://www.greatoven.org/
Fundraising team: The Great Oven (2)
James Thompson
Organizer
Raisa Sufian
Team member