Monday 22 July 2024 
Having become deplorable and no longer meeting food safety standards, we had to take swift action, especially as its deplorable state was threatening the health of our patients.
The kitchen has a ground floor of 816 m2 and a basement of 816 m2, giving a total surface area of 1,632 m2. It was last renovated in 1975, not to mention the war damage and the service it provided to various people, both inside and outside the hospital. So, 49 years have already passed without any remarkable work having been carried out. Only expensive maintenance work helped to temporarily solve problems or breakdowns that arose.
The kitchen currently provides 3 meals for 1200 people a day: patients, doctors, employees and Sisters; with a total of 438,000 meals per year. It should be noted that the kitchen plays an important role in the special events of the Congregation and socio-medical congresses. Indeed, the restoration and rehabilitation project was supposed to start in 2019; this is why a sum was set aside for this purpose, and a temporary kitchen was set up in place of the patients’ residence in Saint-Elie pavilion, which in the meantime had been transferred to Saint-Michel pavilion. However, following the events of October 17, 2019, and the health and economic situation of the hospital aggravated over time due to the collapse that Lebanon is experiencing, the execution of the project was interrupted until the year 2021, when the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) allocated to us a large part of the phase of Civil Engineering and Electromechanical works. Currently, we are looking for funds for the equipment. A sum of USD 52,858 was received from Association Elias in Switzerland.
As for the duration of the project, (equipping the entire kitchen), we need 6 to 12 months, in case the funds are insured.
The realization of this project is essential to the continuity of the hospital’s mission, which aims to offer food security to all its beneficiaries, to offer the best to our patients, most of whom are neglected by their parents and even by hospitals, and to preserve their dignity and rights at all levels, without forgetting that our Psychiatric Hospital is the only one in Lebanon that receives the mentally ill with serious cases.
It should be noted that the cost of the completed construction part: civil engineering and electromechanical works was 1,092,702.48 USD.
As for the equipment, a sum of 1,290,833.49 USD is essential to be able to resume work at the central kitchen, since the temporary one is beginning to threaten the health of our patients, and of all the beneficiaries.
