I took the kids along to NTUC Finest at Bukit Timah Plaza two weeks ago to buy food to donate as part of our contribution to this cause. Noey was full of questions -- What does "needy" mean? Why can't they buy their own food? -- and it was a good opportunity to explain why we were doing this. He accepted it easily enough.
And when we got to the supermarket, we quickly got down to work. I got a basket as I wanted the kids to be able to help fill it up, and we headed straight for the canned food section. I tried to show Noey what the halal symbol looked like, and let him do the choosing.
Walking the aisles, we added some instant noodles, rice, and condiments to our basket. We also stopped by the biscuits and decided to pick some to donate. In went some Ritz, Marie Biscuits and some Fancy Gems (ie. the little biscuits with the coloured sugar bits on top). I hope they make some other children happy. Nomi got most excited after we added the biscuits to our basket and kept trying to dig them out, only to be stopped by Gor-gor.
"No, Mei-mei, they are not for eating. They are for other people!" was Noey's refrain. I'm glad he got it.
To round off our purchases, I asked Noey to pick out a beverage, and he chose this: his favourite Chrysanthemum drink that he usually gets in church.
Our basket full, we paid for our purchases then trotted them over to the donation box. The poor boys manning the collection point really looked rather bored and tired when we turned up -- we were there in the evening -- so I'm glad we gave them something to do.
I had really hoped to follow up this donation exercise with the delivery of food hampers to the actual recipients, so that the kids could see where their donated food actually went. But both kids came down with fevers just before our scheduled date on the 8 Dec, so we had to give it a miss. Nomi continued to be sick for more than a week, putting paid to most of our activities. Instead, we decided to concentrate our efforts on donating more food for distribution to the needy.
We will be going back for our third round today.
Time is running short as the Project ends on 19 Dec and the target for donations has still not been met. They are still urgently short of halal canned food, milo and cooking oil, amongst others! You can do your part today by dropping off the food and provisions at the collection points (See here for details of donation locations) or even by making an online donation. Let's do our part to give those who need it some Christmas cheer during this festive period, shall we?
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