f o o d notes | the ffth newsletter >>

Setting up Food From The Heart (FFTH) has been the most exciting and rewarding task of our lives. Every day we feel inspired by the passion of our volunteers, who help to bring bread and other goodies to needy persons. We feel very fortunate to have gathered so many kind hearted Singaporeans who form the ‘backbone’ of FFTH. We never expected so many people to step forward and join our program when we started in February 2003. By now our family of volunteers has reached 1500 and we would like to say ‘Thank you’ to all of you who contributed.

It does not matter how well you manage an operation or how well you plan, if there are no persons carrying out the actual job – you can’t succeed. Each of you who has contributed to FFTH either by donating your time and effort or money or donations in kind IS PART OF THE HOMEGROWN SUCCESS STORY!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners in our scheme - all the bakeries and food wholesalers - who are donating so generously to us. In the short span of one year, FFTH has been established as a credible organization with sincere motives to help the needy. This has encouraged many more companies to donate non-perishable food items like rice, oil, drinks, canned food and even toiletries. Without their generosity, FFTH would not be able to reach out to the 600 needy families currently under our care.

The bread collection scheme has been very stable since July. Every month we collect and distribute 23 tons of bread to homes and institutions. Just imagine – that is equivalent of 470 shopping trolleys full of bread! The bread which we collect from 110 bakery outlets goes to 95 homes.

Our expansion program is therefore targeted at helping needy families rather than institutions in Singapore. As you might be aware, many families who are not yet eligible for Public Assistance are facing difficulties making ends meet every month. Thanks to long term tie-ups with several companies in the food industry we are able to create standard goodie bags for them containing rice, oil, Milo and noodles. Depending on the availability, we will try to supplement these non-perishable food items with drinks and toiletries which are donated to us on a regular basis. Basically, any items which reduce their monthly expenses will help them.

During the Christmas period we collected toys and children’s clothes at 11 law firms and 3 schools. Rather than distributing those nice items to needy kids, we invited them to our consolidation center to make their own choices. They were having the time of their life! All of us overseeing that distribution, volunteers and staff, agreed: Seeing the happy smiles on their faces makes all the effort worthwhile.

Due to that expansion program, the profile of our volunteers has changed. Our volunteers should preferably have free time during the day (weekdays and weekends) in order to help with the sorting, repacking and shipment out of our consolidation center at Jalan Redop ( off Jalan Kayu ).

We believe that the potential to avoid food wastage (especially in the non perishable items range) is still big in Singapore and we will step up our efforts to tie up with even more companies which can donate to FFTH.

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to say ‘Thank you’ to all volunteers and partners – please do continue to trust in us and keep on supporting us! FFTH has already made a positive difference in the lives of many, and is yet capable of doing more!