Speaking to FMT, representatives of Need to Feed the Need (NFN) and Kechara Soup Kitchen (KSK) said they agreed with the ministry’s secretary general, Adnan Ikhsan, that feeding duties needed to be better coordinated to prevent overfeeding and wastage.

In a recent interview with Sinar Harian, Adnan complained that some NGOs did not consult the ministry before embarking on feeding programmes.

“They must not do as they please,” he said. “If they have funds, they ought to channel them to us so that the money can be used to help” the homeless and hungry.

NFN coordinator Rina Mohd Shaharuddin said there were several unregistered groups providing vagrants with meals in the city.

“Everyone is all over and there’s no coordination,” she said. “This creates problems of food wastage and overfeeding.”

She spoke of cases of NGOs and well-meaning folk feeding vagrants in places where soup kitchens were already open.

She said such groups should work with the soup kitchens so that wastage would be reduced.

“The food and activities we prepare for the homeless are funded by public donations and we do not want to waste the money.”

NFN is a community-run initiative to provide one meal every Thursday to the city’s homeless.

KSK project coordinator Justin Cheah said sporadic feeding programmes were not of much help to the homeless.

“The independent groups do not provide food on a regular basis,” he said. “Occasionally, they even hamper our work.”

He said the soup kitchen operators sometimes had to clean up after these groups because they would not do so themselves.

He agreed that welfare work would be more effective and efficient if all well-meaning groups were to register with the ministry.

“There are shelters and other facilities in place for helping the homeless,” he said. “Why not channel the money they have to those shelters?”

He said the unregistered groups and anyone else wishing to help were welcome to volunteer at KSK and other soup kitchens.