Since the start of the pandemic, however, the team has been inundated with calls from people they never expected to hear from: regular families in need.
While the #BenderaPutih campaign is a new development, the struggles faced by breadwinners to put food on the table throughout the pandemic has been no secret to the NGO.
“We never used to do these big home deliveries to individual families, we always targeted homes for the marginalised. But when Covid-19 hit, it became a whole new ballgame.
“Now, we have pages upon pages of addresses and contact details for hundreds of families who have called and asked for help,” operations manager “Mr Soon” told FMT at their Cheras headquarters, as he flicked through ring binders filled with contact details of people who had come to them for help.
What began as a way to minimise wastage in the food industry has quickly become a full-scale operation with regular volunteers, chefs and a food testing lab to make sure supplies are safe to consume.
The facility is packed with food donated by partners like Mondelez, Aryzta, Giant, Mark & Spencer, and Tesco (Lotus’s).
“We also go to the Selayang market every day to get vegetables, and we pick up around three to five tonnes,” he said.
Volunteers are deployed on a daily basis to deliver food, and feed “over a hundred people everyday”.
The foundation was started by Rick Chee, who worked in the food service industry. He saw firsthand how much went to waste throughout the food supply chain and many people he could feed with the items that would normally be discarded.
“It’s always difficult to start something like this,” Chee said. “First, I got some friends in the food industry to give me their excess food, and it snowballed from there. The most important thing is building that trust with your donors and the people you’re helping.”
He said that when they first started, the goal was that for every RM1 donated to the foundation, they would be able to give away RM10 in free food through partnerships and bulk buying.
“As of last year, we were able to collect and give away RM16 million worth of food, and thus surpassed our goal through the support from individuals and corporations.
“During the crisis, a lot of businesses were not able to survive and needed to give their stock away, so we were able to make sure they didn’t go to waste.”
Chee said just as delivering food to these communities is important, so too is the educational side of their operations.
“We have a training centre here at the headquarters. Imagine the aunties and makcik cooking at the welfare home or the old folks home. They might be cooking for a hundred people, and it’s important that they understand how to handle food safely.
“When we engage with these places, we always want to empower them to learn more about food safety, hygiene and healthy eating, so they can come here and have a chance to learn from our team.”