Even as most workplaces shut down islandwide from today, it will be business as usual for Mr Nizar Mohamed Shariff and his four employees, who will continue their daily home deliveries so that needy families will not go hungry.
Mr Nizar was advised by a friend to halt operations for a month at Free Food For All, a charity he had founded in 2014, when news of the "circuit breaker" measures were announced last week. He told The Straits Times: "I said, 'No, we must continue what we do'. If anything, we should double up our efforts because there are more people who need our help right now."
The organisation the 49-year-old runs has been distributing meals and groceries to the elderly and low-income residents living in rental flats for the past six years.
Free Food For All is one of a handful of food charities here which will plough ahead to bring food to the tables of needy households amid the measures that will affect all non-essential services from today.
Community care services, such as meals-on-wheels programmes, are included in the list of essential services that will remain open during the one-month circuit breaker.
For most of these charities, the modus operandi has been changed to accommodate the tighter measures.
In Free Food For All's case, food packs that are usually distributed to residents at void decks will now be delivered by hand to each household. This will increase the number of home deliveries from 10 previously to about 30 a day.
Apart from hygiene kits, the charity gives out food items such as frozen meals, fruits and vegetables, dried rations and cooking oil.
The Meals-on-Wheels (MOW) programme run by the Agency for Integrated Care (AIC) will also continue its operations as usual, the agency told ST.
The initiative delivers about 5,300 meals daily islandwide.
With fewer volunteers, MOW service providers are deploying their staff to deliver meals, said AIC. "As such, the service can still continue and seniors are able to receive their meals promptly on a daily basis."
Non-profit organisation Food From The Heart distributes some 7,500 food packs every month to needy households via its partners, such as schools, senior activity centres and family service centres.
With the closure of schools and senior activity centres, the organisation is looking into alternative ways to distribute the food packs to its beneficiaries, such as using a commercial delivery platform.
Its chief executive Sim Bee Hia noted that the charity has also been receiving dozens of appeals for food donations from individuals as well - something that is "not usually seen". "In times like this, I don't think anyone would ask for food unless they really have to," she said. "We're working out how to cater to them, because we hope that food is something that nobody has to worry about."
Mr Nizar noted that the number of households which have applied for aid has also increased from 100 to about 1,200 a month, a number beyond the 900 households its current resources can help.
The organisation is appealing for cash donations.
"That's the fastest way to help and best way to stretch the dollar. All the help we can give goes a long way in these times," Mr Nizar said.
Ms Sim also made an appeal to the public not to engage in panic buying. "The suppliers we buy from are trying to cope with the influx of demand to fill up supermarkets due to panic buying - it's affecting everything down the food chain. Please just buy enough for your family. If not, you'll be impacting charities' work to feed the needy."
Contact nizar@freefood.org.sg to make a donation to Free Food For All, while donations to Food From The Heart can be done via https://www.foodfromtheheart.sg/donate
