Lendlease, Noel spread joy through collaborations

Singapore

LENDLEASE Global Commercial Reit distributed 280 packed meals to the residents of St Joseph's Home and NTUC Health Senior Day Care, and aims to donate 1,000 packed meals for beneficiaries under Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities and Community Chest by end of this year.

The food was prepared by social enterprise Dignity Kitchen, which the Reit had worked with since last year.

Kelvin Chow, chief executive officer of Lendlease Global Commercial Trust Management, said: "Given the limited resources, we want to focus on helping the disadvantaged in the Singapore workforce. Based on experiences with previous partnerships globally, we found that skilling, training and employment yielded the highest social return on investment and have therefore decided to focus on this."

After several rounds of interviews with social enterprises, "we decided to work with Dignity Kitchen as they are one of the few social enterprises in Singapore that trains, finds jobs for and employs a range of people with disabilities.

In addition, Dignity Kitchen has been running their WSQ-certified programmes for many years, and have a proven track record and a wide network of employers that can take in the trainees".

For this current initiative, the Reit will purchase the packed meals from Dignity Kitchen and distribute them to the beneficiaries.

On why such collaborations are important, Chow said: "Collaborating with Dignity Kitchen not only benefits the elderly home/day care centre, but also help keep Dignity Kitchen's operations going. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected all of us, and the already vulnerable groups are even more adversely affected. Through these small but meaningful efforts, we hope to achieve a more equitable society."

In the same vein of wanting to give back, Noel Group partnered Focus on the Family Singapore (FOTFS) - an organisation with an IPC charity status - early this month to send 20 Chinese New Year hampers and special 5-course sets to families in challenging situations.

For every Chinese New Year hamper purchased, Noel Group will also be donating S$10 to the organisation in support of its Eat, Laugh & Love campaign to promote family relationships this festive season. The total donation will be capped at S$25,000.

Founder and managing director of Noel Group, Alfred Wong, said: "To us, gifting is kindness and the appreciation of togetherness in times apart... we will work towards our commitment of bringing people closer not just for our customers but also for the community as we tide through the new normal together."