By Mei Kuan
Food Pantry, an initiative by Perak Women for Women Society (PWW), is aimed to aid the needy where they can drop by the PWW Shop and take what they need with no questions asked, be it dry groceries, toiletries or food aid.
Kicked off on August 16, the pop-up Food Pantry is held every Sunday from 11am till 2pm. The first two weeks aided over 200 underprivileged and their families while the third week benefited at least 150 people from the B40 group.
Limited to 3 items per person, it has received very encouraging responses especially from senior citizens living alone, single mothers with families to feed and the disabled. Some turn up as early as 9am to queue while some take public buses from as far as Menglembu, Pengkalan and Ampang. Some even walk from Kinta Heights low-cost flats.
Sumathi Sivamany, President of PWW expressed her gratitude to the many kind and generous donors as all items are donated by the community for the community.
“The Food Pantry is a project of the PWW shop. We are overwhelmed by the support given by our very generous donors. The pantry which is supposed to run for 8 Sundays is now going into the 4th weekend. Our donors’ generosity only confirms that we have a very caring society amidst us,” she explained to Ipoh Echo.
“PWW is trying to spread some cheer to needy families who have to work hard just to put up a meal for the family. Even the smallest contribution makes a big impact during these unprecedented times of hardship. We are quite confident that our donors will give us their full support for the remaining 5 weeks. We have also adhered to all SOP (standard operating procedure) and engaged the service of Rela (People’s Volunteer Corps) personnel to help our volunteers during the pantry days,” Sumathi added.
The PWW Shop welcomes donations in the form of groceries and toiletries. For instance, rice, biscuit, bread, spices, cooking oil, milk powder, washing powder, shampoo, toothpaste and soap among others.
Readers who would like to contribute can drop these items off at The PWW Shop which opens daily from 10am till 3pm at No 15, Jalan Market, 30000 Ipoh.
For more updates, visit The PWW Shop’s Facebook page.
