DONATIONS and volunteers have dried up for soup kitchens in Kuala Lumpur even as people in need of their aid have multiplied during the virus outbreak.

Volunteers, worried about infections, are fewer while the weakened economy has seen donations take a dive. The conditional movement control order (CMCO) has also hampered efforts to reach the homeless, the people running the aid programmes told The Malaysian Insight.

Kechara soup kitchen project director Justin Cheah said he has counted a 30% increase in the number of people coming for free meals.

“Currently we feed about 600 people, comprising the urban poor and the homeless, six days a week,” he said, referring to Kechara’s base of operations in Jalan Pudu Barat which is open daily except Sundays.

Lack of volunteers and funding are the main issues, Cheah said.

“We are going through very uncertain times now and we have not enough funding to maintain operations.

“We are trying not only to survive until the end of the year, but we are also worried about what might happen next year if the pandemic continues.”

Funding has dropped by half since the start of the MCO in March.

“Most of our donors are members of the public who are middle-income earners, foundations and corporations.

“But since the MCO many have lost their jobs and have not been able to contribute.”

Kechara has 15 permanent workers in the Klang Valley, Penang and Johor, and requires funding not just for their food missions but to pay salaries, utilities and operation costs.

It also provides dry food supplies to 50 families in the Klang Valley, but the shortage of volunteers has hampered the delivery of these goods, Cheah added.

Pit Stop Community Cafe in Jalan Tun H.S Lee has seen funding drop by more than half, said co-founder Joycelyn Lee.

“I think it’s the case for everyone. We rely on crowdfunding and sponsorships which have dropped significantly as the CMCO progresses,” she said.

Pit Stop also sees fewer volunteers these days as many regulars are afraid of catching the virus.

“We used to have 10 volunteers coming in daily on a rotational basis. But now we have less as some are coming only once or twice a week.”

This is despite the health and safety precautions that are in place, such MySejahtera app check-in and body temperature checks.

Four days a week, Pit Stop hands out 80 packs of food from its base and 60 packs from Anjung Singgah. Thirty more go to an orphanage.

It also provides rice, cooking oil and vegetables for more than a dozen orphanages, special needs organisations, shelters and old folk’s homes, but Lee said the amount of aid has been cut because of the lack of money.

They have also put some of their beneficiaries on a waiting list.

“What we need are funding and food. The MCO has seen our costs go up significantly while at the same time funding has decreased.”

Social and Enabling Environment Development (Seed) founder Mitch Yusof said sponsorships shrank after June as more and more people were laid off.

“We’ve seen a drop of 50% in sponsorships.”

The lack of funds has caused Seed to reduce the amount of food served. It now gives out 50 packs of food a day instead of 200, and these are handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.

The number of volunteers at Seed has dropped to only 20 people, who take turns to help out at the office in Jalan Tiong Nam, where lunch packs are distributed on weekdays.

The well-established Pertiwi Soup Kitchen, meanwhile, says it continues to receive contributions from the public and charity organisations in Singapore.

Pertiwi founder Munirah Abdul Hamid said she plans ahead to ensure the soup kitchen has enough money for its operations.

It distributes lunch and dinner daily except Tuesdays and Thursdays to avoid overlapping with another soup kitchen.

Pertiwi, which normally distributes food from the homeless transit shelter at Lorong Medan Tuanku 2, now operates from a nearby restaurant.

Pertubuhan Kesihatan Dan Kebajikan Umum Malaysia (PKKUM) gives out 300 food packs daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner, at the centre in Jalan Raja Laut.

PKKUM is able to continue providing food packs as it receives supplies from the Lost Food Project, Pit Stop and various food banks and organisations.

It does face a shortage of funds to buy masks and hand sanitisers, said PKKUM founder Elisha Kor Krishnan. – November 6, 2020.