Inside Sofra, The Digital Platform Connecting Donors, Restaurants, And NGOs To Feed Lebanon’s Displaced

Amid the ongoing displacement of more than a million people in Lebanon, thousands of families in the country are struggling to secure a daily meal—and a new digital platform called Sofra has emerged to respond to this need.

Sofra, the result of a strategic partnership between the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, UK-based non-profit Siren Associates, Beirut-based technology company CME, and Beirut Digital District (BDD, one of Lebanon’s leading innovation ecosystems), is a platform that connects donors from around the world with local restaurants and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to fund, prepare, and deliver hot meals to displaced families.

Through the Sofra platform, donors can fund meals from anywhere in the world. Local restaurants prepare the meals at cost using their existing kitchens and staff, while NGOs handle delivery to verified shelters and displaced communities. Each step is tracked from preparation to distribution, with NGOs confirming deliveries through photo verification, and donors receiving updates on how their contributions are used. 

A scene from a restaurant that's part of the Sofra initiative. 

To learn more about Sofra, Inc. Arabia spoke with Maurice Mattar, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism, who led this initiative in close cooperation with Aline Kamakian, founder of the renowned restaurant, Mayrig, and the NGO, Sawa Blessed, and a syndicate of owners of restaurants, cafés, pastry shops, and nightclubs in Lebanon, along with partners of the program. While it’s notable that Mattar (who previously founded and successfully exited an e-commerce venture in Lebanon) was able to get Sofra off the ground just a week after it was first discussed, the results the platform has achieved since launching on March 14, 2026, are what make it really stand out. “Within the first six days of launch, Sofra had delivered over 10,000 meals to 11 shelters, activated seven restaurants, saved 70 jobs, and had more than 75 additional restaurants registered and ready to join,” Mattar revealed. “The proof of concept came almost immediately.” 

But given that Sofra operates at the intersection of donors, restaurants, and NGOs, three groups that don’t typically operate in sync, Mattar admitted that getting three very different stakeholders to operate in sync required deliberate choices when designing the platform, because each group had different concerns and comfort levels. For instance, with respect to donors, the central challenge is trust—they need to know that their money is reaching people in an efficient and effective manner. To address this, Mattar pointed out that Sofra is built around end-to-end traceability, with every action on the platform both logged and tracked. “Daily audits include callbacks to shelters, restaurants, and coordination points on the ground,” he added. “Social media and photo verification provide real-time proof. Only three percent of funds go to payment gateway fees; everything else goes directly to meals. Sawa Blessed, Aline's NGO, holds and disburses funds to restaurants as an independent financial layer—at no additional cost.”

Maurice Mattar, Deputy Chief of Staff at the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism.

Meanwhile, for restaurants on Sofra, Mattar noted that the challenges they face are around financial viability and fairness. Again, the platform has factored these in. “Sofra caps meal prices at US$3 to cover produce, operations, and delivery,” Mattar explained. “Restaurants are also capped on volume, deliberately spreading work across more kitchens to maximize job preservation rather than consolidating orders. The Ministry of Tourism also validates every restaurant before they join.” Another key consideration for Sofra, Mattar added, was to ensure it is integrated into Lebanon’s existing national response architecture, rather than operating in parallel to it. “We coordinate shelter needs directly with the Crisis Unit at the Prime Minister's office, using official figures on the number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) — civilians forced from their homes by the conflict — to determine real demand and distribution,” he shared. “Shelters provide daily feedback on food quality, and any restaurant that fails to meet standards is immediately suspended. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) coordinators serve as the official contacts within each shelter to manage and verify deliveries.”

The impact of such mechanisms can already be seen in Sofra’s early results, but for Mattar, the focus is now on scaling it further. “We're currently at around $160,000 in funding — enough to demonstrate that the model works, and to build real operational momentum,” Mattar said. “Our goal is to reach $1 million per month, which would translate to over 300,000 meals delivered, more than 10,000 people fed daily, more than 70 restaurants active, and roughly over 500 jobs protected. The gap between where we are and where we want to be is a funding gap, not an operational one. The infrastructure, the partnerships, and the trust are already in place.” Such a structure also bodes well for Sofra’s long-term sustainability. “Sofra is currently donor-funded, which is appropriate for an emergency response,” Mattar noted. “But the underlying architecture—a digital platform connecting donors, verified kitchens, and beneficiaries with full auditability—is genuinely the foundation of a social enterprise. The $3/meal cap, the platform-based auditing, the NGO financial layer—these are structures that could support diversified funding over time: institutional donors treating this as a recurring commitment, government procurement partnerships, or eventually a model where the platform sustains itself without relying entirely on charitable giving.”

Laura Khazen Lahoud, Lebanon's Minister of Tourism (in center) with Mayrig and Sawa Blessed founder Aline Kamakian (left) and Siren Associates co-founder Carole Rizkallah Alsharabati. 

And as far as Mattar is concerned, Sofra’s transition into a self-sustaining model is more a matter of capital than anything else. “The Ministry of Tourism's leadership gives Sofra institutional credibility that most grassroots initiatives take years to build,” Mattar pointed out. “The question isn't whether this can become self-sustaining—it’s how quickly we can secure the funding scale that makes that transition possible.”

Sofra is currently open to donors, restaurants, and NGOs looking to take part in the initiative. Donors from anywhere in the world can fund meals on this link, restaurants in Lebanon can join the platform on this link, and NGOs in the country can register on this link.

Pictured in the lead image is a scene from a restaurant that's part of the Sofra initiative. All images courtesy the Lebanon Ministry of Tourism.