Without doubt, one of the most popular restaurants in the Jeddah-Makkah region is Al Baik. The first stop for visitors coming from other areas of the Kingdom is almost always at Al Baik, to experience that oh-so-crispy, flavorful, and delicious taste. Al Baik's cleanliness, convenience, affordable prices, and secret seasonings keep customers coming back for more. An online poll ranked AlBaik as the seventh favorite restaurant in Saudi Arabia, which is pretty good considering the mind boggling number of restaurants we have here. Al Baik is not like any other fast food chain. When you buy from Al Baik you are getting tasty fried chicken and much more. Al Baik is not only about great food, but also community service, preserving the environment, charity work, and looking after our neighborhoods. Engineer Rami Abu Ghazala, the CEO of Al Baik, has initiated an anti-littering campaign and created two likeable cartoon characters named Nazeeh and Wartan to get this message across to the public: “Littering is a Mistake … It Puts Our City In Trouble We Can't Escape!” Thousands of youngsters memorized this slogan by heart since the anti-littering campaign used a whole range of creative ways to catch the attention of our youth. Nazeeh and Wartan have appeared on television advertisements, billboards on our city's main roads, booklets handed out by teenage volunteers at busy intersections and on the Corniche, and during visits to schools. Abu Ghazala spoke about his role in social reform and environmentalism, in addition to being a successful businessman and the CEO of this great enterprise. Has there been any documented reduction in Jeddah's pollution problems as a result of these educational advertisements? Reduction in littering as a result of the awareness campaign is difficult to measure. But like all educational efforts, the effect must be viewed over the long term and the message repeated and reinforced. This is the reason why the campaign is conducted on a continuous basis throughout the year through various programs with schools, environmental entities as well as the Jeddah Summer Festival. What can be measured is the results obtained during each campaign. A s an example let me give you the results of a typical Nazeeh & Wartan anti-littering campaign when 100 volunteers worked daily from 6 P.M. to 11 P.M., seven days a week for one full month covering more than 10 kilometers of beach at the Corniche. They spoke to more than 22,500 families and Corniche visitors. In total, the volunteers handed out more than 30,000 garbage disposal bags and 5,000 campaign pins. In addition, 20 road volunteers were stationed at four main traffic lights in the city where they worked six hours a day for four weeks and spread awareness to more than 100,000 motorists. We took our anti-littering campaign one step further and had an actual clean-up exercise. A team of 57 divers and 100 volunteers worked for six hours to remove trash from the bottom of the sea and the beach. The divers removed three tons of trash from the seabed and the volunteers picked up one ton of trash from the shore. In our attempt to measure public response, a post-campaign evaluation and survey was conducted which revealed that 80 percent of the people approached by our volunteers welcomed the campaign. Of the people approached, 50 percent joined in to physically help with the clean up. I would like to add that since 2005, Al Baik has included the Nazeeh & Wartan campaign as part of the Clean Up the World campaign, a global effort supported by the United Nations Environmental Program with the participation of 40 million volunteers from 120 countries, involving community groups, schools, government departments, enterprises, and institutions. In summary we can say that over the years the campaign has acted as a catalyst in the community by creating awareness of the unsightliness and potential health dangers of litter and has succeeded in significantly changing the habits of children and adults. Al Baik is fulfilling its commitment to providing a cleaner, safer, healthier, and more pleasant environment by participating in the Billion Acts of Green campaign. What is the Billion Acts of Green campaign? The Billion Acts of Green is the largest environmental service campaign in the world and it aims to register and implement one billion acts of green. The goal is to register one billion positive actions prior to the Global Earth Summit in Rio in June 2012. To date, the Earth Day Network has registered over 100 million pledges and acts. Al Baik is supporting the Billion Acts of Green by creating greater awareness of the need for environmental care and is organizing a series of school visits to talk to students about the roles each and everyone plays in protecting the environment. At the end of the visits, students sign pledges and plant a small green plant in their schools or homes. Each student planting is a green act and will be added to the count. Our message is clear and simple: take small steps on a daily basis and gradually you will get into the habit of automatically doing things that care for the environment, such as putting litter in the garbage bin instead of throwing it anywhere, conserving energy by turning off the lights and saving precious water resources by turning off taps. Positive thinking such as this improves our daily lives and in the long term has a positive and lasting effect on our planet Earth. Anyone wanting to take part in the Billion Acts of Green campaign is welcome to visit the Nazeeh & Wartan Facebook page and upload their messages and what they will be doing there. What other community service programs does Al Baik sponsor? We teamed up with the Ministry of Education, Khawater, and Feena Khair to introduce another awareness campaign called “My School, My Responsibility”. In the past year, this program has been working hand in hand with 50 schools and over 40,000 students on a daily basis to promote student responsibility in keeping their classrooms clean. Another community service program we are involved in is the “Al Baik Safe Food campaign: Because Safety Comes First” featuring five key messages: Keep clean; Separate raw and cooked food; Cook thoroughly; Keep food at safe temperatures; and Use safe water and raw materials. This campaign included seminars and road shows giving advice on buying foodstuffs and the correct way to store, prepare and cook food. The campaign also emphasized personal hygiene and kitchen cleanliness at all times. What is your vision for the future of Jeddah? Our vision for Jeddah is to see our city transformed into a vibrant and dynamic 21st century metropolis that ranks with the best in the world. As the city expands and redevelops you can be sure that ABaik will be there in every district where we can be conveniently close to our customers, with a commitment to making a significant contribution to enhancing the quality of life for the whole community. Abu Ghazala's strong sense of corporate social responsibility does not stop there. In fact, he is very active in making our city a better place to live in. Al Baik funded and continues to maintain a public park in the Al Khalidiya District. The park includes grassy areas, picnic benches, playgrounds, and a basketball court. In addition, Al Baik extended a helping hand to the victims of the February floods, by providing hundreds of hot meals free of charge for charity organizations to distribute to the families in need. Each year, Dar Al-Hekma college honors businesses and individuals that have performed outstandingly in the area of community service. This year, Al Baik was the recipient of the Business Entity Award from Dar Al-Hekma in recognition of the successful Nazeeh & Wartan anti-littering campaign. The story of Al Baik is proof of the natural law that states: What goes around comes around. Al Baik has been consistently giving good to the community and youth, providing services and assistance, and educating the public on environmental problems, responsibility, and cleanliness. And what came back to Al Baik? What started out as a single fried chicken restaurant was transformed into a wealthy empire. __
