Mission to fight hunger
> Food Aid Foundation collects halal surplus food and groceries for the needy
PETALING JAYA: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. This adage is proven true with the work done by the Food Aid Foundation (FAF) in its effort to ensure no Malaysians go to bed with an empty stomach.
Rather that seeing food wastage as a problem, FAF – the first ever food bank in Malaysia – saw a silver lining to the predicament by treating it as an opportunity to provide food to an impoverished group.
FAF director of operations Hayati Ismail said they collected halal surplus food and groceries from manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and retailers and distributed them to the needy.
“From our studies, we know that there are pockets of unused food within the industry that can most certainly be put to good use and benefit the needy,” Hayati told theSun recently.
She said recent statistics revealed that Malaysians, on average, contributed 15,000 tonnes of food waste daily to landfills, with 3,000 tonnes of it categorised as edible.
Blessed with abundance of food, Hayati said Malaysians tend to forget that there are people who have not enough to fill their stomach due to poverty.
“In Malaysia, we have not seen people waiting at dumpsters or behind restaurants to collect food. Therefore, we assume everyone has enough to eat,” she said.
FAF was set up in June 2013. Its founder Rick Chee and cofounder Mohamad Faisal Ghazali had planned the project for six years before launching the initiative. Planning included studying how such banks were run overseas and how to implement the idea in a Malaysian setting.
Hayati said as both had been involved in the food and beverage industry, they saw how much edible food was wasted daily.
“Food products usually collected by FAF are those that are out of specification, close to expiry, incorrectly labelled, with damaged packaging, discontinued promotional products as well as excess stock and customer returns.”
Hayati said the usual food collected by FAF comprised three categories – nonperishable food, uncooked raw food and surplus cooked food.
She said FAF had a lineup of trained employees in food preparation, as well as a fully equipped storage facility and kitchen, to ensure the quality of food it distributed.
“For frozen food, the shelf life is longer. We use our chiller truck to collect frozen and cooked food from hotels to ensure the food safety,” she said.
“For non-perishable items, the urgency of delivery depends on the expiry date. Our operations are based on a first in, first out system.”
Hayati said FAF also established partnerships with several food manufacturers, distributors, hotels and individual donors to ensure continuous supply of food to the needy.
The gathered food would then be channelled to welfare and charity organisations such as orphanages, elderly homes, food distribution centres and refugee schools.