In an effort to reduce food waste, Menna Shahin launched TeKeya in April 2019. The app allows food providers such as restaurants, hotels, and supermarkets to minimize their food waste. They offer them the chance to give free food to charities or to sell the food at 50% its original price. The app gives users an easy way to give back to the less fortunate.

TeKeya started operations on a small scale in the governorate of Cairo. Now, it is operational in five governorates; Cairo, Alexandria, Giza, Al Sharqia, and Aswan. So far, with 6,000 users, Tekeya has saved over 3,000 meals from being wasted.

Shaheen tells WAYA that food waste is a huge problem in the region. She says: “A third of food is wasted. In Egypt, on person wastes 73 kilograms of food annually. In the Middle East 250 kilograms a year. With TeKeya, we are trying to reduce these numbers.”

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, TeKeya launched “TeKeya Challenge”. TeKeya will donate all meals to those most affected by economic challenges resulting from the pandemic. It will also be sending meals and food packages to those in the healthcare industry. Shahin states “in the first week of Ramadan alone, restaurants donated over 1,000 meals”.

As for its Ramadan campaign, TeKeya aims to create an online charity table. They have organized a meal for fetar with a large number of restaurants as well as charity bags from supermarkets.

In the beginning, Shahin struggled is to find a team that believed in her vision. Convincing people of the harms of wasting food, and how it affects the environment was challenging. It affected her while trying to find talent and while amassing users. “We tried to raise awareness and work to solve this problem,” Shaheen says to WAYA.

The startup plans to expand to all Egyptian governorates in the future. It will do this by adding more food sellers to its network.