More free food for needy families, frontliners in Sabah

 

SK St Peter headmistress Pauline Gusup (right) and teacher Nurul Huda Mostapa (left) distributing food to residents outside the school in Kudat.

KOTA KINABALU: More underprivileged families in Sabah affected by the Covid-19 pandemic have now received much needed help, thanks to generous Malaysians.

SK St Peter in the northern Kudat district collected nearly RM8,000 in donations after the story on their public food bank project was published in FMT two weeks ago.

This has enabled the primary school to continue with the second phase of the project, which involves venturing out to poverty-stricken communities to deliver food to the hungry.

Meanwhile, a woman’s personal food drive for overworked frontliners has garnered RM35,000 in donations from Malaysians and Bruneians. FMT highlighted her initiative on Oct 31.

Rebecca Chin supplies free hot meals daily to Kota Kinabalu’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1. Her effort started on Oct 20 and was supposed to end last Tuesday. However, thanks to the contributions, she and her team are now able to extend the initiative to Nov 28.

Nurul Huda Mostapa, the food bank coordinator at SK St Peter, said members of the school’s staff had their hands full reaching out to the poor communities living near the school after the donations started coming in.

Teacher Nurul Huda Mostapa taking a selfie during one of her visits to poor families in Kudat.

“We were able to target more students and families who are financially challenged due to the pandemic,” she told FMT.

She said they had so far managed to help 100 families, each receiving a food basket worth about RM50.

“This is an addition to the food bank we already have at our school. Some people made four-figure donations and some left touching remarks like ‘all of you are like Mother Teresa’.”

Rebecca Chin’s team with food for frontliners at Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1 in Kota Kinabalu.

The school started the food bank last month by placing daily necessities such as rice, flour and milk on the shelves of a cabinet. These were meant for students and their families but they quickly became popular with people living nearby.

Nurul Huda said the school was now planning to reach out to more than 100 students and their families in Pulau Banggi, off Kudat. It is one of the poorest islands in the state.

Chin said she had not stopped hearing from donors eager to chip in since the FMT report on her initiative went online.

Health workers enjoying free meals provided under Rebecca Chin’s initiative.

“Without their help, love and support. we would not have been able to do this service for our state,” she said.

“We did not go out to solicit for donations. All the help just came to us and we are grateful to be able to channel it back to our dedicated medical teams at the forefront of this pandemic, many of whom we don’t even see.”

She said a Covid-19 patient who had recovered was among the donors. - FMT