There are 3 initiatives you can contribute to:
Thanks to technology, you are able to track the number of meals claimed, by which beneficiary, at which participating food stalls etc.
Each meal donation costs $4.80 and Secondmeal offers complete transparency on the breakdown of how each dollar is spent.
We donated 100 meals towards the Elderlies in Need initiative with part of our profits from August to November 2020 sales.
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The meal vouchers are apparently utilized very quickly because we are in an old neighbourhood with many elderly residing in one-room flats. Once I witnessed an old lady redeem a meal, ate a portion of the noodles at the stall and packed the remaining into a container. I can only assume she was rationing the food for a 2nd meal or for a family member back at home because a standard meal portion is not huge. It was heartbreaking. We are committing to donating 100 meals with a part of our profits from the sales in July 2020. Do support the program too if you are in the vicinity! :)
]]>We informed ItsRainingRaincoats of our donation budget and they returned after a few days with the items that were needed, and for which migrant worker dormitory. I can only imagine the amount of coordination work that goes on behind the scenes. Kudos to all volunteers for their time and effort!
We were tasked to purchase coffee and biscuits for a dormitory with 175 migrant workers. I placed an order with the founder of Kindness Mart, Steven, who then arranged for the delivery as well. A total of 25 packs of instant coffee and 75 packs of biscuits were delivered to the dormitory earlier this week.
The photo of the migrant workers with the coffee and biscuits, sent to me by ItsRainingRaincoats, brought a smile to my face. I wish we can do more for them. Till the next time!
]]>Foodbank SG also works with restaurants to provide subsidized cooked meals to and relies solely on monetary donations for this 'Feed the City' campaign. The aim is to support restaurants through COVID-19 while feeding the hungry.
We purchased 200kg of rice and 50 cans of sardines/baked beans from Kindness Mart in response to Foodbank SG's call for donation as their food supply is diminishing. The food will be delivered straight to their warehouse at 218 Pandan Loop on 25 June 2020, Thursday.
]]>Number of people in need of help, on the other hand, has increased because of the current economic climate.
Food from the Heart's food donation wish list this month has many more "urgently needed" items compared to when we made our donation in December last year.
We purchased the required food on NTUC Fairprice but were limited to very small quantities for some items such as rice, noodles, and canned meats. Many food items were either out of stock or the store restricts the quantity each person can purchase. Food from the Heart works with NTUC Fairprice to consolidate online donations / orders to be delivered once every 2 weeks.
Willing Hearts is a soup kitchen that prepares, cooks and distributes 5,000 meals daily to people in need. The list of food items required by the team at Willing Hearts are listed on their website. Nonetheless, I decided to email their administrator, Lily, to enquire which items are low in stock. Lily shared that they are in need of Bee Hoon and canned sardines (an item not listed on the website). NTUC Fairprice did not have any more delivery slots for online purchases hence, we purchased the items needed by Willing Hearts from Kindness Mart.
Kindness Mart is a social enterprise founded by Mr Steven Goh. Profits from the online grocery are channeled to fund Helping Joy, a charitable organization that supports and cares for the elderly. Kindness Mart limits the quantity of food one can purchase online as well but a few calls to Mr Goh and his team to explain that we are actually bulk purchasing to donate to charity, the team assisted us with an offline purchase. A total of 20kg of Bee Hoon and 20 cans of sardines were then delivered to Willing Hearts on 17 April 2020, Friday.
]]>Even though business has slowed down for us as well, we would still like to contribute however we can to this cause.
We donated S$250 to the The Sayang Sayang Fund to show our appreciation to healthcare professionals and another S$250 to The Courage Fund to show solidarity with the families affected by the outbreak.
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With a part of our September to December 2019 profits, we were able to contribute a total of 20 cans of tuna, 20 cans of sardines, 20 cans of curry chicken, 16 tins of milk powder, and 30 meals to families who are in need through 3 different organizations.
Food from the Heart is a non-profit organization devoted to alleviating hunger through efficient distribution of food. Food is distributed as Community Food Packs and School Goodie Bags. Because canned fish/chicken was listed as one of the urgently needed items, I decided to spend our limited resources on it.
The canned food was purchased from NTUC FairPrice online store. NTUC facilitates the donation process by populating specific items required by various charitable organizations and offer free delivery regardless of the purchase amount.
After chatting with staff at Club Rainbow, I found out that they are short of milk powder for their beneficiaries. There is a demand for both Similac Gain IQ Stage 3 and also Pediasure Vanilla so that's exactly what we got them!
I also always purchase meal vouchers whenever I walk pass Kang Kar Noodles and see that the meal board is empty. A total of 30 meal vouchers have been purchased over the last few months for elderly in need to obtain free meals.
We are truly grateful to all our customers for supporting what we do, enabling these contributions with our profits. Here's wishing you all a merry Christmas and happy new year!
]]>It is heartbreaking to read about man-made forest fires. As if mankind is not doing enough damage to our only livable planet, we proceed to kill our oxygen supply along with the biodiversity that lives in the forests.
One Tree Planted partners with local farmers to plant a tree for every USD 1 contributed. You can choose to plant trees in specific locations in North Amercia, Latin America, Asia, and even Africa. We chose to plant 250 trees in the Amazon Rainforest with a portion of our August profits.
"This reforestation project is located in the Madre de Dios region, home to over 10% of the world's bird species. The goal is to restore and protect the buffer zone between Tambopata National Reserve, Bahuaja-Sonene National Park, and the city of Puerto Maldonado. This area has been identified as a high risk zone for deforestation due to unsustainable agricultural practices. Planting trees here will help conserve habitat for the jaguar and hundreds of other species living in the protected areas, while providing sustainable livelihoods to local people." - One Tree Planted
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Kindness Mart is an online grocery store founded by Mr Steven Goh who is also the founder of the charitable organization Helping Joy. Helping Joy does not solicit for monetary donations but their beneficiaries do require monetary support at times for transportation to hospitals for check-ups, repair works for their homes etc. The profits from Kindness Mart are channeled to help the needy in these aspects.
Not forgetting the elderly back in the neighbourhood we live in, a total of 30 meal vouchers were also purchased at Kang Kar Noodles for the old folks to fill their hungry stomachs.
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Project RICE+ is an annual community service project of the Singapore Red Cross, aimed at touching the lives of less fortunate families in Singapore. First phase of the project is the collection of donation from the public in the month of June. One can donate in multiples of SGD 10 for beneficiaries to receive bundles of rice, dried food and other daily necessities. We contributed 10 bundles, which will be distributed on 20 & 21 July 2019. Volunteers of Project RICE+ work with various Family Service Centres throughout Singapore to identify the list of beneficiaries.
]]>Fast forward 20 years, I started Your Sustainable Store to save the Earth (literally). But I also want the business to be able to help people in need. I started to read up on the many charitable organizations out there. Monetary donations can be done easily with the click of a button via a credit card. But to donate in kind, I had to call up and email to find out what exactly was needed.
Helping Joy does a lot of work to help underprivileged elderly who are living in cluttered and unhealthy conditions. They needed a coffee table for a new project because the existing one was in a poor condition that had to be discarded for safety reasons. So my girl friend and I went coffee table hunting! We found a right sized one in a great condition at Salvation Army's Praisehaven Mega Family Store. Instead of just purchasing a brand new coffee table online, we upcycled one and at the same time contributed to another non-profit.
We gave the coffee table a good wipe down with the help of the friendly staff on site and delivered it ourselves to the beneficiary the next morning. On the same morning, we delivered 6 tins of Pediasure 850g milk powder to Club Rainbow. I never knew milk powder is so expensive these days! Hope these 6 tins of milk powder will somehow make a difference to the families of chronically ill children.
There is so much good to be done in the world, and I’m just getting started.
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