A letter from our CEO

Dear Friends

COVID-19 found its way into all our lives in Singapore since January.  On 2 April, I made a special call-out for help.  Many of you responded and brought rays of sunshine with your gestures and generosity.  It has been about a month since.  I would like to update how our beneficiaries and Food from the Heart are doing. 

To those who have donated food items, the rations have been checked, sorted and delivered.  Some will go out in May.  To those who have donated funds, we purchased food items we were short of to complete the thousands of food packs.   The funds also helped ramp up our packing capacity.  In all, your donations made it possible for us to pack and deliver 7,900 food packs in April.  We will continue to do so for May and the coming months. We will help as many beneficiaries as your donations allow us to.

To all our breadrunners, volunteers, community and school partners, a heartfelt thank you for stepping forward, despite challenges and anxieties, to help us sort, check, pack and distribute.  More than 85,000 food items and 16,000 kg of bread passed through your hands to reach the tables of our beneficiaries.  We could not have done it without all of you.  Do take care and stay safe so that we can continue to help serve those in need.

You may have read about our challenge when more than 20 of our 102 distributing partners had to shut with tightening measures, impacting more than 1,000 families.  uParcel, a professional courier service provider, offered its platform and agents to deliver food packs to our beneficiaries’ doorsteps free-of-charge.  In such difficult times, when uParcel and its agents are also adversely affected, it touches my heart to see an estimated 1,500 delivery jobs taken up.  Similarly, I cannot imagine the struggles of our Bread Run partners: bakeries, confectionaries, hotels and food suppliers.  Yet, you always have Food from the Heart in mind.  Our best wishes to you. 

To our 100 over charity homes we partner and support, we will share acts of kindness with you and connect you to well-wishers and donors.  Rest assured that you are not forgotten even as the world’s attention seems to be elsewhere lately.

Behind the scenes and away from the public eye, there have been endless texts, emails and calls to keep our operations going.  The fluid situation meant thinking on my feet; sometimes, I feel more on my toes.  I literally lost track of weekdays and weekends.  Receiving revised guidelines via text at 1.30 am on Easter morning from a senior MSF officer seems such a norm.  MSF and NCSS’ utmost trust and support in Food from the Heart is a vote of confidence and confirmation of the work we do.

To my wonderful staff, especially the team at the warehouse, words cannot describe my appreciation for carrying on and for your understanding of hard decisions I have had to make.  It will be a while more before all of us can all get together again.  Thank you for being my comrade-in-arms in this fight.

The fight is not over.  We continue to need donations to support an increasing number of beneficiaries.  To those who wish to help and contribute, I seek your understanding and your patience as my team may take a bit more time to respond.

If you know someone in need, please let us know.  We will help, like how we helped over 450 new elderly and families in April.  In May, we will be adding more food items and upsized ones for a more sufficient food pack as most beneficiaries have to cook at home during the circuit breaker period.  The donations received have allowed us to give better.

To all our beneficiaries, hang in there.  Whether you need food for yourself, or for a parent to bring food to the table for your children, food is something you should not and need not have to worry about.  Food from the Heart and all our friends will continue to be a consistent and dependable source of food for you and all at home.

 

The journey continues…

#StaySafe #SGUnited

 

With heartfelt gratitude,

Sim Bee Hia

CEO, Food from the Heart