In the past three months, videos and photos of extravagant festivities among community groups within the Kingdom have been shared online on social media. Commentators pointed out that the phenomenon of extravagance has not started in the last three months, but social media has highlighted the problem, especially with large figures announced by charity associations collecting wasted food in various regions of the Kingdom. These associations usually receive excess food from families after weddings and parties, and the numbers shared indicate an increase compared to previous years. Officials said that food leftovers in Makkah and Madinah over the past year reached more than 3,000 tons, pointing out that only 600 tons were distributed to the poor. Director of the project "Saved Grace" in Makkah, Ahmed Al-Matarfi, said they were able to distribute a million meals last year. "Daily we distribute nearly a thousand meals. More than three tons of wasted food we collected were not fit for human consumption though. Only in the first four months of this year we distributed 500,000 meals," he said. Al-Matrafi said he believes that Saudis confuse generosity with excessive wasting of food, stressing the need to avoid these habits. "It's not about the level of income. It's more about cultural habits that must be changed," he said.
