Singapore — Celebrating one year of community food distribution, Workers’ Party (WP) politician Yee Jenn Jong says that their journey started “Exactly a year ago, on day 1 of the Circuit Breaker”.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Apr 7), Mr Yee wrote that despite having had to stop food distribution in Marine Terrace due to the Covid-19 circuit breaker, “local volunteer Judy Zhou and I signed up as volunteers for essential social service provider Willing Hearts and took our first 80 packets on 7 April 2020”.
He added that even during times when they did not manage to quickly distribute the food they had, they would knock on doors of rental units until all the packets were given out.
“Within two weeks, we gradually increased to over 200 packets as the community especially in the rental flats got to know us”, he wrote.
He described the intiative as “365 days without a single day of break, rain or shine – no break even during Chinese New Year, Christmas, Hari Raya, Deepavali not even on Polling Day or any other public holidays, all powered by the local community of dedicated volunteers”.
He recalled one volunteer dislocated her ankle and another had a leg injury, and yet they continued to serve. “They simply want to make sure the giving continues,” he added.
Said Mr Yee: “I wish I can give all of them a public service medal. They get no car park privileges, no priority for flat applications nor school admission for children. They just serve with their hearts”.
As an extension of the existing food distribution programme, Apr 7 was the first day of the food distribution at the rental blocks of Chai Chee. An initiative by the residents, they serve food cooked by Willing Hearts.
“Willing Hearts now cook some 10,000 packets of food daily for all over Singapore. All 150 packets were given out in Chai Chee within the hour. Good to know that there are always people willing to help their neighbours even though they themselves may not have much”, Mr Yee noted. /TISG