Food donor law timely and necessary

PETALING JAYA: A newly gazetted Act protecting food donors may just be what Malaysia needs at this time to help the poor and needy while the country comes under a movement control order (MCO) to grapple with a health crisis.

The Food Donors Protection Act 2020 is especially timely as the Act will provide protection for food donors – both individuals and corporations – from being sued should any liability arise from the food they donate.

Food operator Marcus Ooi (pic), who has been distributing packs of rice, vegetables and meat to the homeless and needy with his friends, said the Act would protect food donors like him.

“There are many kind souls out there who want to help the underprivileged but are afraid that they are not protected.

“As for me, I work in the food and beverage industry.

“We have a set of standard operating procedures (SOP) on food safety, ” said the 33-year-old in an interview yesterday.

Ooi said the SOP included minimising helpers in the working area, full-body sanitisation and sanitisation of all kitchen implements before and after work.

“We are experienced and have attended courses on how to keep our food fresh and safe.

“With the Act, recipients also do not need to worry about the food given to them, ” he said.

Yayasan Food Bank Malaysia chief executive officer Abdul Wahab Long said its mission was to “rescue surplus food” and with the Act coming into force, he believed that there would be more individuals and corporations coming forward to donate.

“People have been telling me that they are more willing to give excess food to us, ” he said.

“People have seen how we operate and have done due diligence on our statutory partners.

“Donors want to see their donated food properly taken care of and given to the targeted groups.”

Abdul Wahab said donors wanted to be sure of the systems that were put in place by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or food banks to ensure that their donations were given to the needy.

“They are willing to give but would rather not take the risk.

“Otherwise, people will blame them (if the food goes wrong), ” he said.

Kechara Soup Kitchen operations director Justin Cheah agreed that the Act would compel more individuals and corporations to donate their excess food.

“I think the general consensus is that people always want to give (the excess food away) rather than let it go to waste.

“But, sometimes, you have policies from a company that prevents this so it is also very hard.

“A lot of times, the reaction we get is that it is the company’s policy that they need to destroy (the food).

“They also fear that there would be people who would misuse and abuse the donated (food), perhaps some might even go on to sell it.

“That’s why I believe trust has to be there, ” he said.

A hypermarket, said Cheah, had been giving Kechara its excess food since 2016, adding that this was due to trust being established between them.

“They came to visit us, followed us to the ground and saw the people we were serving, ” he said.

Cheah is of the opinion that more individuals and corporations would perhaps come forward to donate excess food if certain exemptions, such as tax exemptions, were given, like what other countries have done.

With many in the B40 group heavily impacted by the movement control order (MCO), Beyond Borders founder Mahi Ramakrishnan said people were moved to help out as it was a humanitarian crisis, regardless if the law was gazetted or not.

“Donations have increased during the MCO. People are giving as much as they possibly can.

“Even we, a small NGO, have been able to donate food to a few hundred families, ” she said.

However, Kembara Kitchen co-founder William Cheah said there had not been much issue with getting food donations from do-gooders in Malaysia.

He said instead, he found the biggest issue to be the lack of coordination and efficiency in delivering the food items and essentials to needy families across Malaysia.

“We still have people sponsoring us with cash and food to run our programmes but the resources are spread very thinly because the need is great.

“Every year, we have floods. We would get donations from around the country to be targeted at selected areas. Maybe, we will have about 15,000 to 20,000 people affected.

“However, now, it is the whole country that is affected. We are talking about millions, ” he said.

The solution, he said, was to have better coordination and planning between different agencies and bodies distributing food to the needy.

“The government should also closely work hand in hand with the NGOs, ” he said, adding that one way was to remove the bureaucracy of distributing food strictly according to districts.