They don’t ask for identification, they don’t ask for money, they don’t ask questions… why has no one else copied it? 🥖 You press a button. Wait a minute. And freshly baked bread comes out, still warm, without anyone asking you for a dirham or identification.
This is how ‘Bread for All’ works, the program launched in Dubai in 2022 by the Mohammed bin Rashid Global Centre for Endowment Consultancy, under the Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation.
The machines do not dispense cold packages: they bake the bread on the spot, inside Aswaaq supermarkets in areas such as Al Mizhar, Mirdif and Al Warqa’a. No one checks who you are or how much you earn.
All you need is hunger. The phrase that inspired it all comes from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, ruler of Dubai: “In the Emirates, no one goes to sleep hungry or in need”.
Today, the project no longer distributes only bread, but also biryani and cheese pizza, and anyone can donate through the Dubai Now app, by SMS or at the machine itself, with amounts between 10 and 500 dirhams.
What began as a vending machine ended up becoming a network where those who receive help today can sustain it tomorrow.