Singapore

COVID-19 has undoubtedly altered life for many, but it cannot get worse than lacking food and nutrition during this time.

Hunger in Singapore has only worsened since the pandemic. During the Phase 2 (Heightened Alert) last month, Food Bank Singapore noted a 40 per cent increase in requests for emergency bundles by beneficiaries compared to its "business as usual" period after the circuit breaker, said co-founder Nichol Ng.

The non-profit organisation also distributed to the needy some 1,600 tonnes of food in 2020 - up from 806 tonnes in 2019.

The Food Bank's 2020 Hunger Report showed that one in 10 Singaporeans experienced food insecurity at least once over 12 months. Out of this, two in five experience food insecurity at least once a month.

Food Bank saw an increased volume of requests during the height of the pandemic last year, and over the past month. "We also saw a spike from people that are not even within the system of aid at the moment, which is worrying," added Ms Ng.

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Although restrictions were placed on physical events during these periods, Food Bank was granted "essential services" status, which helped them carry out food distributions as best they could.

"Calls for help became more frequent and desperate, which meant we usually would activate the emergency food packs within hours of receiving the calls," Ms Ng said.

Pivoting to technology, Food Bank rolled out a virtual food banking application in June last year to improve its efficiency in addressing requests. The application allows donors to share the types of food and available quantities they have in real time. Food support organisations can view these updates directly on the platform. Ms Ng stated that work is underway to improve this application.

However, satiating hunger is not just about giving out rations without thinking about what you give, she added. Nutritional needs have evolved overtime, and Food Bank observed that beneficiaries now prefer cooked meals to the traditional rations that organisations have handed out.

"It is also about teaching (beneficiaries) on how to eat better for good health as well," explained Ms Ng.

Hence, food insecurity in Singapore takes on a different form, said Johnpaul Dimech, chief executive officer, geographic regions and region chair, Asia-Pacifc at Sodexo, a global hospitality company.

"In Singapore, food insecurity is often due to a lack of access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food," he said.

To address the issue of nutrition, Sodexo works with educational institutes to create healthy plant-based menus.

This includes training local chefs in Singapore to improve knowledge of plant-based cooking techniques. Doing so diversifies the breadth of food consumed and reduces reliance on just a few sources.

"Dietary monotony is linked to a decline in the diversity of plants and animals used in and around agriculture, which threatens the resilience of our food system and limits the breadth of food we can eat," Mr Dimech (see amendment note) explained.

However, food insecurity does not exist in silos. Reducing food wastage is imperative in Singapore, where unscrupulously large amounts of food are thrown away. In 2020, the National Environment Agency reported that 665,000 tonnes of food was wasted.

On this front, Sodexo launched the WasteWatch programme in 2019. This programme allows kitchens to capture waste management data through data analytics and, over time, minimise food wastage.

In Singapore, food insecurity is more an issue of evenly redistributing food than it is an actual lack of food. Thus businesses and individuals alike need to be more conscious on how their consumption patterns fuel this problem.

Ms Ng added: "Many people feel that food is only about filling someone's stomachs, but it is important to note that food is also about human emotions - bettering welfare and nutrition in order for our beneficiaries to lead a better life."

Amendment note: An earlier version of this article misspelt Johnpaul Dimech's name. This has been corrected.