Yesterday,
sent out a tweet to two restaurants asking what it would take for them to donate meals to street cleaning personnel. He tweeted to Crepaway and Roadsters with the hopes of collecting 100 meals – asking “how many retweets needed to take those [meals] free?”
@Crepaway We are planning to collect 100 meals to distribute among street cleaning personnel. How many retweets needed to take those free?
— Ahmad Sherkawi (@Ahmad__sherkawi) 20 April 2017
Then Crepeaway almost immediately offered the 100 meals.
@Ahmad__sherkawi To clarify, we took on your challenge to join in the worldwide fun going around this retweet trend. (1)
— Crepaway (@Crepaway) 21 April 2017
@Ahmad__sherkawi We’re glad that along the process, we inspired other local brands to join in the cause. The 100 meals will be given away(2)
— Crepaway (@Crepaway) 21 April 2017
@Ahmad__sherkawi & maybe you’ll keep the retweets going and more will feel the need to jump on board. (3)
— Crepaway (@Crepaway) 21 April 2017
Which was exactly what happened. Roadsters joined in offering another 100 meals.
@Ahmad__sherkawi We’re happy your campaign for free meals is gaining success and we’re proud to be a part of it! (4) ❤️
— Crepaway (@Crepaway) 21 April 2017
@Ahmad__sherkawi We would love to see the happy faces of people who work hard day and night to provide us with clean streets.
— ROADSTER DINER (@roadsterdiner) 21 April 2017
Then Zaatar W Zeit joined.
@Nazihkanaan1 @Ahmad__sherkawi @Crepaway Good deeds on Twitter? No retweets needed for that?!! DM us the contact of the person in charge for us to coordinate ✌? #LoveRegardless
— Zaatar W Zeit (@zaatarwzeit) 21 April 2017
Assaha donated 10 meals
دعما للحملة الحلوة يلي اطلقتها بدون اي رتويت نحنا بنقدم ١٠ وجبات من فرعنا Démodé يلي بنزلة بشارة الخوري @Ahmad__sherkawi pic.twitter.com/heuMbSnWTj
— الساحة (@assahalebanon) 21 April 2017
Then someone offered to take care of picking up and delivering the meals!
@Ahmad__sherkawi @Crepaway We will handle pick-up and delivery as a support to this noble initiative.
— Nazih Kanaan (@Nazihkanaan1) 21 April 2017
At this point, they secured more than 300 free meals! But there’s more…McDonald’s checked in to see if they can still join!
@Ahmad__sherkawi Hi @Ahmad__sherkawi! Is it too late to step in, and #ShareTheLovin?
— McDonald’s Lebanon (@McDonaldsLeb) 21 April 2017
And minutes later, donated 100 meals.
@Ahmad__sherkawi Consider 100 Free Meals from all of us here at McDonald’s Lebanon! Let us know how you would like to receive them! #ThumbsUp #ImLovinit
— McDonald’s Lebanon (@McDonaldsLeb) 21 April 2017
Then the next morning, the one and only
Hallab
joins in!
@Nazihkanaan1 @Ahmad__sherkawi @Crepaway Hallab 1881 would definitely love to be part of this noble activity and spread #SweetSmiles. ? Please DM us to proceed. ? معكم #حلوـلبنان
— Hallab 1881 (@ARHallab1881) 22 April 2017
Over 400 meals donated so far! How ‘sweet’ of them (pun intended).
@Ahmad__sherkawi It’s of everyone’s duty to spread #sweetsmile… now you have 400 free meals ? Thank you for taking this sweet initiative. ? معكم #حلوـلبنان
— Hallab 1881 (@ARHallab1881) 22 April 2017
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Ahmad said that their “main objective is to serve the community in what we are able to do.” So we reached out to him with a few questions:
Did you expect this kind of reaction from people and the restaurants?I have confidence in Lebanese people and I am sure that this campaign will grow as a snowball.Do you expect more restaurants to join in? Have been contacted by any others so far?
I expect more companies to roll in into this campaign. The problem is in the delay of response which is due to either the absence of continuous monitoring of the companies’ social media pages or the decision to wait to check if this campaign will actually succeed. We have been contacted by many private companies that are not into restaurants business and we are discussing how they can help.
We are giving a chance for other companies to take part of this initiative and at the same time, we are coordinating with the municipalities in Beirut, Saida and Tripoli to accompany us during the pickup and delivery.
This will give more credibility to this campaign and will motivate other company to participate.
When do you plan on distributing the meals to the street cleaners?
We should give out the first meals Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
People are sceptical, as usual. Is this a PR stunt?
Not at all. This is a personal campaign and the volunteers are all working from a humanitarian perspective. I don’t accept to consider this a PR stunt. This initiative is done to benefit the less fortunate people by cooperating with the private companies and the social media activists. This initiative will not stop here. The next initiative will happen in May and will keep it as a surprise.
