Volunteers with Food from the Heart sorting and packing food items for needy households at a warehouse. — Food from the Heart/TODAY pic
These are people who typically do not reach out for aid such as young couples or those living in private properties. These cases were classified as people who faced food insecurity, or households and individuals who do not have enough to eat because of limited money or other resources. MSF said: “The report raises awareness on food insecurity in Singapore, as well as the need for a cross-sector approach where the Government, the community and corporates come together to better coordinate food support.”
The charity gives away fresh items such as root vegetables, eggs and bread. It also distributes food packs of non-perishable food items such as canned food, rice and biscuits once a month to households in need. Volunteers and a worker from The Food Bank Singapore packing food items. — The Food Bank Singapore/TODAY pic
“We can help at least by providing security in terms of food,” he said. “They can worry about everything else but they don’t have to worry about food.”In the study by SMU, slightly more than six in 10 of food-insecure households did not seek help, giving reasons such as embarrassment, being unaware of food aid, and believing that others needed the help more.
In its outreach work, the team at The Food Bank has seen about 500 cases where the beneficiaries live in either five-room Housing and Development Board flats, condominiums, or even landed properties. This group makes up about 10 per cent of all the cases that have reached out to the non-profit for food rations.Nichol Ng, co-founder of The Food Bank, said: “It might be the elderly who have not worked for a few years, or maybe those running sole proprietorships.
“These are people who managed to get by in the past, day to day and then now, they totally lost their income,” Sim said. “These are the people who would not know where to go for help.”At a time when charities have been facing a drop in monetary donations, both food charities said that these and donations of non-perishables have gone up for them, and this has helped them to cope with the surge in demand for aid.