Celebrating Our Volunteers this December!

Weekly Bread Runs; monthly dry-ration packing; yearly Cambodia education sponsorship and school visits. Meet our Bread Runner Siu Yow Wee, who has been our volunteer from the very start almost 20 years ago.

  

You have deliberately made giving a huge part of your life. Share with us more about it in your daily life.

I’m an operations manager and a happy father of a wonderful family. 

Every Sunday evening, my family and I go on our designated Food from the Heart Bread Run route, where we collect unsold bread at Yi Jia Bakery House Cafe and deliver them to Thye Hua Kwan Senior Activity Care Centre.

We help out at Sathya Sai Social Service on a monthly basis as a family, where we pack food rations together for distribution to the needy. I’m also part of the board and attend their meetings around eight times through the year.

Each year, I pool some funds with a group of donors to make a cash donation to a school my friend set up in Cambodia to fund the teaching that goes on there. The teachers are each paid S$200 to S$300 a month, which we are able to sustain year on year. My family and I also visit to see how things are at the school. I grew up in a less developed environment but my daughters have not, so visiting the school is also an opportunity for them to see and better empathise with the people we’re helping. They’re also able to appreciate how lucky they are.

 

Food from the Heart Bread Runner Yow Wee with his youngest daughter

 

Maybe that is why your daughters have this ingrained desire to give. Your daughters always have a huge smile on their faces on your Bread Runs!

Yes, they are happy to go on the routes! Food from the Heart’s concept of saving unsold bread that is in perfectly good condition and giving it out to those who need it makes a lot of sense to us.

My elder daughter organises community service activities like food packing and distribution with her own friends from time to time as well. She would also save up the money she earned from her own entrepreneurial efforts and buy food for the needy.

 

The culture of giving within the family is very strong. Has it always been like this?

 I was not from a well-off family, but I remember my mum to be especially giving. She would graciously buy food for our relatives. I think her attitude rubbed off on me. Now, I feel like the more I give, the better things get for me. I believe that’s karma!

My wife’s work revolves around supporting low income families so it is a big part of her life and ingrained in both our beliefs.

 

How did you get to know about Food from the Heart? 

I read about it in the newspaper, like the Laimers (Food from the Heart founders) did. Soon after, I learned that they were organising a meet up for people who have a shared belief in their cause. They were funding it on their own and I thought it was a good idea, so I decided to support.

What happened back then is happening again now – SARS happened three months after our first Bread Run started, and bakeries are closing because of the lack of revenue. Back then, we had to take a break for 2 – 3 months because there were not enough partnering bakeries in operation. Now you have more. 

Enquire with us to join Food from the Heart as a CSR bakery partner/bread donor.

 

You’ve been doing this for so long and have remained so enthusiastic throughout! What about your other commitments?

I enjoy doing it and as with anything in life, you need discipline. You need to set time aside to do these things.

  

Can you share some of your thoughts about contributing to the community?

It’s very natural that when you do something good for others, you feel good about it yourself. That itself is a reward.

If you have time, give your time. If you have money, share it. If you’re blessed with both, do both. The more you give, the more you receive.

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Food from the Heart wishes to say a big THANK YOU to our 11,000 wonderful volunteers this International Volunteer Day! BreadTalk has stepped forward to help us put together a set of F&B vouchers, which was sent out earlier this month to thank our volunteers for their support, showing that indeed what comes around, goes around. Let’s continue to keep supporting one another, together!