IT’S not uncommon to see small groups of volunteers at Tesco hypermarkets at closing time leaving with crates of unsold but still fresh vegetables, fruits, and bakery items, in Penang and Kedah.

It’s a labour of love for volunteers of Penang’s highly successful but understated food programme called the Mutiara Food Bank.

The programme works by collecting unsold food items from donors and then handing them over to those in need on a rotational basis. 

Launched in April, it’s not surprising that not many have heard of the Mutiara Food Bank even though the programme has a reach of 7,000 recipients in Penang.

Programme chief Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said they had purposely  kept it low key until the food programme – the first of its kind undertaken by the state government, with Food Aid Foundation (FAO) as an adviser and consultant – was proven successful.

“Welfare is my passion, apart from education. I wanted to start a project, but Penang already has very solid and successful welfare programmes. 

“The right groups are already getting cash handouts under the i-Sejahtera programme. I needed a project that did not involve cash aid,” said Saifuddin, who had started the senior citizens’ insurance scheme Takaful Kifalah in Kelantan  in 2004, when he headed the PAS government-linked Tok Kenali Trust Fund in 2004.

The food bank idea was sparked when the PKR secretary-general met  FAO co-founder Rich Chee. Saifuddin said he knew a food bank would complement Penang’s existing social welfare initiatives.

“Chee agreed to coach us. I presented the idea to the chief minister, who agreed but drew the line at encouraging vagrancy,” he said.

Donors, recipients, volunteers

Tesco Malaysia was already working with FAO and the hypermarket agreed to provide Mutiara Food Bank with unsold but still edible produce and baked goods. 

To identify the recipients, Saifuddin worked with another officer at the Chief Minister’s Office – Ab Wahab Long, who managed the state’s Equitable Economic Agenda (Agenda Ekonomi Saksama, or AES) and special duties.

They dug into the databases of Zakat Pulau Pinang (ZPP), the state welfare department, AES and B40 groups. 

“From ZPP, we found 3,000 hardcore poor and 7,000 poor recipients whose eligibilty had already been checked out.

“From the other welfare parties, we found 1,500 more. Next to consider was where they live,” said Saifuddin.

Saifuddin and Wahab sought help from the local village development and security committee  (JKKK), mosque committees and state councillors, who knew best who needed food aid in their respective areas. 

“These are people we can mobilise as volunteers to collect the food items, sort the items at the collection centres, and distribute them to the recipients.

“We got ourselves a logistics manager, and set up collection centres in Kepala Batas, Penanti and at the service centres of elected reps and coordinators,” said Saifuddin, who uses his own pick-up and multipurpose vehicles to collect the donated food.

Wahab said the respective JKKK handled the list of recipients, which was shared with the food bank so that it knew to whom the food was going to.

“We need the information to prevent problems. If there are elderly recipients, you can’t give them raw items and expect them to cook. It may be better to give them baked goods and fruits. 

“Because we are dealing with food, we must be extra careful to prevent issues like food poisoning,” he said. 

So that everyone knew what to do, the team underwent training with FAO at night.

A quiet success

By April, the food bank had had its dry run in the three state seats in Permatang Pauh, with the team collecting unsold food items from three Tesco outlets in Alma, Seberang Jaya and Kulim.

“If business is good, we collect less. Some days we get 70kg of food. Some times we get 800kg,” Saifuddin said.

Today, Mutiara Food Bank reaches some 7,000 recipients in six state constituencies on mainland Penang, and four on the island. It has 13 donors, including Tesco in Sungai Petani, Kedah; and a staff of 11 – a big jump from three.

Saifuddin said the programme would go full swing next year with more partners and donors in the pipeline.

Following the signing of an MoU with FAO last month, Penang hotels and chefs associations have signed up to help.

“Surplus food from the hotels will be collected, sent to a central kitchen, frozen and then reheated for delivery. 

“The chefs will train the team to properly handle cooked food,” Saifuddin said.

He said more volunteers were needed in the growing programme.

“More want to be donors, like the biggest caterer in Penang. So the challenge is convincing more people to be volunteers,” he said.

Satisfying job

Saifuddin said the best reward was seeing the small project, which did not cost much money, help more and more people.

“On one side, you have people struggling. On the other, you have surplus food headed for the landfill.

“With this programme, we can rescue the food and help struggling households save some money.”

“If you help a family save RM20 on food today, tomorrow the parents could give their kids some pocket money for school,” he said. – December 23, 2017.