Food baskets and hot meals for the needy

(From left) Dr Kang and Khor with Khoo after handing over the food baskets to House of Hope.

NEEDY families can head to Gurney Paragon in Gurney Drive, or the Hunza Properties Bhd’s Penang International Commercial City sales gallery in Jalan Tun Dr Awang every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (11am to 2pm) to get free bags of daily food items.

Hunza Group corporate communications executive Andy Koay said bags of food each containing a bag of rice, cooking oil and a can of baked beans among others would be made available at each venue from now until Aug 20.

It is under their Penang Premium Business Enterprise Association’s (PPBEA) Caring Food Basket Charity Programme.

“We will also prepare hot food for those who turn up to collect the bags. We hope to help those who have fallen on hard times due to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added.

On Monday, PPBEA also initiated a collaborative food basket distribution project with House of Hope to alleviate the burden of the needy communities.

PPBEA members decided to come together to collect some funds for the initiative under the Caring Food Basket Charity Programme.PPBEA contributed 750 food baskets worth RM60,000 consisting of dry food and fresh vegetables to the charity home based in Ayer Itam.

Programme organiser Datuk Dr Kang Chin Seng said House of Hope was chosen as a partner because of its established track record in assisting needy communities and also its easy accessibility by those requiring support.

“They will then handle the logistic arrangement of distributing the food baskets to their database of the severely affected households as well as individuals.

“The situation now is very disheartening due to the pandemic which has yet to slow down.

“We hope this humble support initiative will help the communities to push through this difficult period,” he said.

Also present to hand over the food baskets to House of Hope founder Khoo Cheng See on Monday was PPBEA president Datuk Seri Khor Teng Tong.

Khor said with the prolonged pandemic and lockdowns, the livelihoods of many people not only in Penang but nationwide, were at risk.

“This is a long-term battle for all of us, and we hope to be able to do a little for the society.

“We are considering running more charity programmes in the future.

“I advise the public to strictly adhere to the standard operating procedures when visiting the House of Hope to collect their food basket,” he said.

For more information on the programme, call Koay (012-4989070) or House of Hope (04-8264826).

PPBEA, which was registered in 2019 with the Registrar of Society, is made up of the captains of various industries in Penang.

They strive to be a platform for information exchange pertinent to businesses and also an avenue for business networking and social activities within the country and regionally.

PPBEA also assists the relevant authorities by providing relevant business information to facilitate good policy formulation.