We’ve got the lowdown on how you can help out this amazing organisation that supports underprivileged families around Singapore.
Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are to live with certain comforts: a roof over our head, our little ones going to good schools or having help at home. However, some families struggle with even the basics: putting food on the table for instance. And that’s why we’re highlighting the amazing work of Food From The Heart, a charity organisation that has been collecting and distributing food for the hungry since 2003.
What do they do?
Food From The Heart does many things aside from collecting and distributing food. They run a regular bread drive, regular community food pack drops, and hand out school goodie bags so growing kids and students are getting nutritious and healthy food for their meals. Households with per capita income of less than $690 are qualified to receive help, and beneficiaries are usually the elderly who are a bit lonely and don’t have the support of family and friends around them. Food From The Heart also helps out young families who struggle to put food on the table.
The organisation is “beneficiary-driven rather than donor-driven”. That basically means it gives the underprivileged the freedom to choose food items from what’s available. Ultimately, Food From The Heart ensures that someone gets the food that would otherwise go to landfill at the end of the day.
How can you help?
Here are some more details on the different drives Food From The Heart organises, and how you can get involved:
School Goodie Bag
The organisation has distributed more than 10,000 school goodie bags to date, keeping kiddos healthy and alert through stressful school periods. Food From The Heart selects what kind of food to include in these goodie bags to ensure families and kids are eating a balanced and nutritious diet – super important for their future. For School Goodie Bags, they take monetary donations and use it to pick and choose nutritious food items.
Community Food Pack
Food From The Heart combines food donations, cash donations (which are used to make food purchases), bread from its Bread Run program (below) and the sweat of hardworking volunteers who help out with the sorting and packing process for its Community Food Packs. Get those guns out and lend a helping hand if you can! The food packs are designed to last a family approximately one month. Items include cooking oil, canned meats and veggies, plus other non-perishables, fresh fruit, eggs and bread. The logistics team then distributes it to 59 different self-collection centres.
Bread Run
According to Food From The Heart, 28,000kg of bread is saved from the bins each month through the organisation’s Bread Run program – that’s 1,350 supermarket trolleys worth of bread! The organisation ensures all that bread is safe for consumption before re-distributing it to those in need. Got access to a vehicle and some time on your hands? Each week, the organisation has a group of volunteers who pick up leftover bread from bakeries and hotels and drop it off at select bread distribution points… it’s a bit of time and some petrol for a good cause.
Market Place
View this post on Instagram
Having partnered with NTUC FairPrice, Food From The Heart takes packaged items that are a little dinged and dented or with near-expiry items – but that are absolutely safe for consumption – and brings it back to its warehouse for another round of quality control and sorting. Any other organisations, such as welfare homes, homes for the aged and community centres, are then welcome to visit Food From The Heart’s warehouse and “shop” for what they need in their own kitchens. Everything is then packed and sent to the welfare home at zero cost.
So, how can you help? By donating money here, or offering your time to sort and pack in Food From The Heart’s warehouse. Or volunteer to do the regular Bread Run.
Food From The Heart, www.foodfromtheheart.sg
Like this story? Here’s more we think you’ll enjoy:
Volunteering: Spend a little time making a big difference
Where to donate goods to charity
Cut down on food waste by donating to food banks
Where to recycle your e-waste in Singapore
Don’t forget to subscribe to our weekly newsletter and follow us for fun moments on HoneyKids Instagram!