1,000 beneficiaries get free lunch; app to feed the needy launched
One thousand beneficiaries from eight social welfare organisations received a free lunch at the Feed the City event at City Square Mall on April 13, 2019.
SINGAPORE — Mdm Halinah Yatim receives groceries and, occasionally, frozen meat every week from Pekik Community Services, which helps the needy in Singapore.
The 46-year-old was one of the 1,000 beneficiaries who were given free lunches at the “Feed the City” event at City Square Mall on Saturday (April 13).
The mother-of-four has been unemployed for four years due to a spinal and leg injury, and has been surviving on a S$1,000 monthly financial aid from Central Singapore Community Development Council.
“We brought them in because sometimes they (beneficiaries) don’t even have a hot meal,” said Mr Nicholas Ng, co-founder of event organiser The Food Bank Singapore.
This was the first time Feed the City was held in Asia. The community event was first started in 2015 by United States-based social impact mobile app TangoTab.
The app, which feeds the needy when users dine in partner restaurants, was launched in Singapore on Saturday by TangoTab chief executive officer Andre Angel at the event.
Already, the app has partnered food-and-beverage operators such as McDonald’s and Ya Kun Kaya Toast at over 500 locations in Singapore.
TangoTab has donated more than three million meals to charity partners in the US since 2014. Together with The Food Bank Singapore, Mr Angel hopes to replicate the app’s success here.
“Singapore is actually quite attracted to the model. We have not heard any restaurant that we’ve talked to that said no,” said Mr Angel.
SUPPORTING LOCAL NGOs
Food security in Singapore is “getting worse”, said Mr Ng, citing a Lien Centre for Social Innovation study of 236 households in 2018 that showed nearly one in five Singaporeans experience severe food insecurity.
The Food Bank Singapore hopes it can support existing local non-government organisations by taking care of all food-related needs.
“They don’t just have to worry about whether these families have enough food, they worry about school books, clothes, the whole thing,” Mr Ng said.
The Food Bank Singapore redistributed around 550 tonnes of food to nearly 300 beneficiaries under its care last year, he added.
Saturday’s event catered for beneficiaries from eight non-government organisations, including Gladiolus Place and Migrant Workers’ Centre.
The meals were sponsored and prepared by vending machine meal providers KALMS, and restaurant groups Central Thai Kitchen and Soup Restaurant.
