After learning that some delivery rider friends were getting by on just S$30 of income a day as the COVID-19 crisis deepened, freelance food caterer Mohd Razib, 55, decided to help out by providing meals for them and private hire drivers.
So four weeks ago, Mr Razib and about 10 friends took turns to park their car outside the Mukmin Restaurant in Bedok North to distribute packets of food for dinner to these workers.
Every Monday and Thursday, private hire and delivery drivers including those from Grab, Gojek, and ComfortDelGro have been invited to drive by the volunteers’ parked car that contains the meals to receive a packet of food — similar to a “drive-through”.
The team invited friends who were private hire drivers to spread the word about the meals on Facebook.
Mr Razib and his team started giving out 50 packets of meals including nasi lemak, chicken rice or fried rice during lunchtime in March.
Some donors placed orders for the meals at eateries for the team to collect. Other donors gave the money to Mr Razib’s team so they could place the orders.
Mr Razib was unable to estimate how much had been collected in donations, but said that he and his friends have had to top up the donations out of their own pockets by a few hundred to cover the cost.
Some meals have been sponsored by restaurants such as Nurz Muslim Food in Kaki Bukit.
The free meals programme has also provided some Muslims with a meal to break their fast.
Since the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan began on April 24, the team has given out about 200 packets in a day as demand for their meals grew. They also changed the distribution time to dinner time so the meals are fresh when Muslim delivery riders break their fast.
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Source: TODAYOnline, 3 May 2020