KUALA LUMPUR: A national food bank distribution and collection centre will be built by next year says the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.
Its Minister, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (pix) said that it will be located in the Klang Valley.
Last Friday, Financial Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that RM25 million from Budget 2020 will be allocated to manage the programme.
“The Food Bank Malaysia programme is designed to cater to the less fortunate, those whose household income is less than RM930 per month. It will also help to reduce food wastage,” Saifuddin explained.
He said with the Centre, the supply of food can be better managed and facilitated for proper distribution. It will also be able to see to the logistics (storage and distribution) more systematically.
“In dealing with food, collection, storage and distribution, we need to have suitable transportation like lorries with chillers that can transport raw and perishable food items like vegetables, without them getting spoiled,” he said at the People’s Housing Project (PPR) in Bandar Tun Razak.
The food bank programme, which is a collaborated effort with Mondelez International (Malaysia) and the Food Aid Foundation, was first launched in Penang last year. It was then extended to benefit those under the PPR scheme.
According to Saifuddin, to date, the programme has benefitted 311,189 individuals from the B40 group and 6,500 students from 18 public universities across the nation.
He further pointed out that 1701 metric tonnes of excessive food was channeled to the needy and put to good use before it went to waste. He also plans to get corporations to come forward to look at ways to curb further food wastage.
“Next year we are going to reach out to help students in polytechnics, universities and colleges, both private and public,” the minister said, already thinking ahead how to avoid more food wastage.
On the side, the ministry has also introduced the Good Samaritan Law aimed at drawing more corporations to contribute to the Food Bank programme, at the same time protect both the contributors and recipients of the initiative.
