KUALA LUMPUR: Despite the authorities’ best efforts to ensure that everyone’s needs are taken care of throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO) period, some will inevitably slip through the cracks.
Ramasamy Periaswamy is one such example.
The 72-year-old is wheelchair-bound after losing his lower right leg last year. Living alone in his flat, he had relied on the kindness of his neighbour, who brought him food every day.
However, when the MCO was imposed, his neighbour left to live with her children, leaving him alone and without help.
Unable to cook, much less go out to buy food for himself, he went six days without any meal.
His plight was highlighted by a journalist, who alerted Kembara Kitchen to his situation. Volunteers from the non-profit organisation swung into action and provided three hot meals and snacks to him every day.
Ramasamy is just one of many who had benefited from aid distributed by Kembara Kitchen throughout the MCO.
KEMBARA — FROM CATERING TO CARE PACKAGES
Kembara Kitchen was originally founded as a catering company, said its co-founder, Yilyn Chan, 36.
It transformed into a social enterprise merely five days before the MCO came into effect.
It started distributing food to medical officers at Sungai Buloh Hospital, the main medical facility handling Covid-19 cases in the country.
“We started by providing hot meals to medical personnel. We realised that shops or restaurants are not open after hospital staff ended their shifts.
“We also provide meals to firemen and police personnel manning roadblocks,” she said when met at the Kembara Kitchen warehouse in Shah Alam.
Apart from hot meals, Yilyn said Kembara Kitchen also distributed care packages containing groceries for families who lost their source of income due to the MCO.
“The care packages are given out based on a priority list. From there, we are able to put families who have no money to buy groceries on the priority list.
“There are also families who are able to have only one meal a day. They are also prioritised.
“The packages can last for a week, so we can ensure every family in need will get one.”
Kembara Kitchen has also distributed cooked meals to the homeless or house-bound people like Ramasamy. It receives orders from care homes as well.
The meals are delivered twice a day. The first delivery is done during lunch, while for the dinner delivery, the next day’s breakfast is included as well. They also distribute groceries to families in need, comprising items donated by the public and corporations.
This is not their first venture into charity work.
Yilyn said the organisation first helped out during the 2014 and 2015 flood crisis.
“We were involved in the flood-relief efforts. However, we weren’t well-trained. We didn’t even have a proper kitchen. That’s how Kembara Kitchen started.
“Now, our full-time staff are trained to cook for a large number of people during disaster relief efforts and we are able to distribute them if any disaster occurs.
“Last year, we went to an Orang Asli village in a remote area. We even travelled to provide help to Palu, Indonesia, where we trained people there to cook using a field kitchen.”
SERVING WITH GENEROSITY
Kembara Kitchen relies on monetary funding, but it is their hard-working volunteers who form the backbone of the organisation.
Yilyn said they had 30 to 50 volunteers and everyone played a specific role, such as delivering items, packing groceries and cooking hot meals.
While the non-profit organisation encouraged more people to volunteer, it only accepts those living near the warehouse due to the MCO and to minimise contact among volunteers.
Yilyn said volunteers were also screened before they joined.
The precautions taken included checking their travel history and body temperature.
The daily routine of the Kembara Kitchen volunteers requires them to prepare cooked meals for the homeless and needy in the morning and later, pack care packages for families in need.
“Their routine starts as early as 8am at the kitchen, where they will prepare hot meals for breakfast and lunch, and handle the supplies donated by sponsors, usually from the public and corporations.
“The hot meals will be sent to the Ronald McDonald’s Charity House, where most patients are cancer-stricken children, who can only eat cooked meals as they are immunocompromised,” she said, adding that the meals were also sent to the homeless.
Yilyn said the kitchen prepared about 500 meals daily. The day only ends when the dinner meals and care packages have been distributed.
The work to pack around 200 to 400 care packages is done at the warehouse, where the donated items are collected.
Yilyn said a screening process was in place for families in need, and the care packages were sorted out based on the priority list.
She said people would reach out to inform the organisation about people in need of aid.
Some, she said, contacted them through friends, while others relayed the information through social media or phone calls.
She said upon receiving information, Kembara Kitchen would deploy its volunteers to check on the cases.
On whether Kembara Kitchen would continue to operate if the MCO was extended, Yilyn said it would depend on public support.
Up to April 6, Kembara Kitchen had distributed more than 2,500 care packages.
Yilyn said Kembara Kitchen also ensured that its volunteers practised strict safety measures, such as not allowing them to enter hospitals or clinics.
KEEPING THEIR DISTANCE WHILE CONTRIBUTING
The New Straits Times followed one Kembara Kitchen volunteer, Muhamad Fauzi Mukhtar, 49, to see how he distributed the care packages.
Fauzi, whose own business had been halted due to the pandemic, signed up as a volunteer to help others.
Upon arriving at a recipient’s home, Fauzi, wearing a face mask and gloves, would place the items at the doorstep and step back one to two metres. He will then make a phone call to inform them of the delivery.
For record purposes, he will take a picture of the recipient picking up the items. Among the items in the care packages are rice, flour, sugar, salt and cooking oil.
“They will usually smile before heading back into their homes,” said Fauzi.
He said he usually delivered food aid to about seven households in Klang every day.
On the government’s directive requiring non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work with the Welfare Department instead of delivering aid on their own, Yilyn said while she understood the need to safeguard the public, she believed that NGOs were fully equipped with the knowledge on how to help those in need.
Kembara Kitchen is now working with the Welfare Department, Civil Defence Force and the People’s Volunteer Corps to coordinate the deliveries.
Their aid is not limited to just people.
From last week, Kembara Kitchen began delivering frozen meat to Zoo Negara and the Malaysia Independent Animal Rescue.