Launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, FreeMakan.com is a BAC Food Bank initiative dedicated to eradicating food poverty in Malaysia by providing dry rations and cooked food to people struggling with hunger and food insecurity.
The initiative’s goal was to raise RM1.5 million to feed 30,000 families, although it is close to achieving that goal (RM1.35 million), there is so much more work to do.
More and more families fall into the B40 category every day and many more spiral downward from there, exacerbated by the pandemic.
FreeMakan partnered with a network of community-based organisations to meet the immediate needs of these families.
There was a backend team facilitating the smooth delivery of food baskets to needy families. 90 staff and 30 Apprentices from BAC were assigned to receive calls and validate the enquiries from 5,800 individuals who had called from all over the country asking for food aid. Moo Tik Pin, Mithila Narendran, Rajkumar Nadarajah and Arivinth Subramaniam and the rest of the FreeMakan team made sure all requests were attended to and no one was left behind .
More than 20,000 families throughout the nation have already received food baskets so far, said Raja Singham, BAC Education Group.
“This equates to more than 2 million meals for 85,000 individuals nationwide.”
“We have delivered these food baskets to those in the Klang Valley, Selangor, Kedah, Perak, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Johor and Sabah. Recently we also reached out to 202 families in Pulau Gaya, Sabah.”
Food Baskets were delivered by the Gujerati Association Pulau Gaya, Sabah
“Early this week we sent 200 baskets to aid the flood victims at Gurun and Yan in Kedah and responded to a FMT news article by delivering 200 food baskets to people at Panorama Lapangan Perdana in Ipoh,” he said.
Deliveries made in Gurun & Yan, Kedah
Deliveries made in Ipoh
Raja said FreeMakan also reached out to Orang Asli communities in Johor and Selangor.
“These are the ones that have not received any aid yet . The requests for aid are also from refugees from all communities, migrant and undocumented workers and the stateless,” he added.
Raja said FreeMakan has been receiving funds from a few foundations and some corporate organisations such as Creador Foundation, SPARK Foundation, Perlis Plantations Berhad, CSR Sugar, Nestle Malaysia, Affin Hwang Capital, Adenland Group, MyTukar, MMA Wilayah, Enya, Aroma Flour, F&N, Comvita and Brickfields Asia College.
Deliveries made by the SPARK Foundation
“We would like to thank them for their support but at the same time appeal to more organisations out there to help out.
“We will keep doing this for at least another 3 months as Covid19 cases are still recording extremely high daily numbers. The requests for food are still coming in.
Donors are encouraged to get in touch with FreeMakan to learn more or to contribute. All operations costs are absorbed by the BAC Education Group and donors’ funds go completely towards the purchase of groceries for the food baskets.
To donate food or goods click here.
To contribute funds, please follow these guidelines:
1. Instant online transfer via the form here, or
2. Bank Transfer as per the following details:
Donate to: Make It Right Movement Sdn Bhd
Bank: RHB BANK
Account Number: 21219800040683
For bank transfers, please indicate “Stop Hunger” and send us proof of donation to donations@giveback.my or via WhatsApp (Moo – 014-2315528)
