Donors fill up bags of foodstuff for the needy

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MALAYSIANS are generally a charitable lot and their kindness knows no bounds.

Volunteers from three Buddhist organisations filled up four bags of foodstuff — rice, canned drinks and cooking oil — in response to the Kampar Municipal Council’s (MPKpr) “Kilo of Kindness” campaign recently.

As the campaign tagline goes, donors are urged to fill a bag with a kilogramme of foodstuff. The council had distributed 1,500 bags to government agencies, corporations and individuals for the purpose.

Working together: MPKpr staff packing rice into smaller packets to be distributed to the beneficiaries.

“We did not weigh the foodstuff but just filled up four bags with rice, canned drinks and cooking oil,” said one of the three volunteers, Foong Siew Keng, from Mambang Diawan.

Foong, 46, said the council’s initiative was commendable.

Campaign chairman Nor Akmal Yang Ghazali said 1,200 bags containing 3,800kg of foodstuff such as rice, sugar, beehoon, instant noodles, canned food, cooking oil and drinks had been sent to the council so far.

“The foodstuff will be given out to 1,200 needy people who have been recommended by the municipal councillors, village chiefs and the Civil Society Council,” he told reporters during a session to pack the foodstuff at the council building recently.

Piles of goodies: Some packets and cans of food donated by the public.

He said the beneficiaries came from areas such as Kampar town, Mambang Diawan, Kuala Dipang, Malim Nawar and Gopeng, adding that each bag of foodstuff to be given out would weigh up to three kilogrammes.

MPKpr president Abdul Hakim Ibrahim said the campaign was the first of its kind undertaken by the council and praised Kamparians for their strong sense of social responsibility.

Nor Akmal said the campaign was one of the initiatives of “Local Agenda 21” and that other local authorities in the country also conducted similar campaigns.