The Food Heritage Foundation is a Lebanese non-profit organization aiming at the conservation of Lebanon’s collective memory and indigenous knowledge through the preservation, documentation and revival of Lebanon’s traditional food heritage. It seeks to create jobs for the Lebanese rural population, namely women and small producers, by reviving the market for healthy home-cooked local cuisine and organic products.

Food culture is an integral part of the Lebanese identity. Unfortunately, this healthy culinary heritage is fading away in the face of globalization and fast food chains’ expansion. FHF aims at preserving and reviving Lebanese local knowledge and traditions around food. FHF seeks to reconcile the new generation and urban population with their food traditions to preserve their culinary heritage and empower small producers and farmers – key holders of these traditions. In addition, FHF’s role is to complement and ensure the sustainability of development projects conceived at the Environment and Sustainable Development Unit (ESDU) of the American University of Beirut (AUB). After its inception in 2013 and through the years it consolidated four main programs and promoted their development: “Souk Aal Souk” Farmers’ Market, “Akleh” Community Kitchens, “Darb el Karam” Food trail and Community Gardening.

Our vision
To become a major drive of economic development through the promotion of local food heritage.

Our Mission
To document and revive the traditional cuisine and promote the livelihoods of rural producers and processors through the creation of rural-urban linkages.