KUALA LUMPUR: A group of young volunteers are once again collecting unsold food from selected Ramadan bazaars to distribute to the needy.

       Within 12 days of starting the campaign on April 4, they saved 4,119.8kg of leftover food and drinks from traders at 11 Ramadan bazaars in several states, said the MYSaveFood@Ramadan project captain Fakhrul Razi Zainol Abidi.

       The group behind the project, which has entered its sixth year, is the GEMA Malaysia Youth Organisation.

       Their two-prong approach to help the needy and reduce food wastage at Ramadan bazaars started way back in 2016, said Fakhrul Razi.

       “We stopped for a while in 2020 due to the movement control order to curb the spread of Covid-19.

       “We will identify a representative or recipient, for example, a tahfiz centre, mosque or homeless person from a list of names we have compiled. However, if the food donation is excessive, we will contact representatives in other areas and ask if they are in need too,” he told Bernama.

       The initiative also has the cooperation of the Solid Waste Management and Public Cleansing Corporation (SWCorp), Shah Alam City Council (MBSA) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM).

       Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory GEMA branch chairman Vikneshvaran Tanabalam @ Hadi hoped that more volunteers would come forward to help with the project.

       “Currently, our initiative in the federal capital only involves the Kampung Baru Ramadan bazaar due to the lack of volunteers,” he said.

       He said those who are interested in becoming a volunteer could visit https://bit.ly/VolunteerMySF to register or the GEMA Malaysia Youth Organisation Facebook page for more information.

       Sharing the same aspiration, SWCorp organised an engagement session in conjunction with Ramadan, with the theme #JomTapau, aimed at reducing food waste that ends up in landfills and causes pollution and global warming.

       “Some 36% of the total waste disposed in landfills is food waste. Of that total, 76% is unavoidable food waste, while the remaining 24% is avoidable food waste.

       “The dumping of food waste at landfills will also contribute to environmental pollution and global warming due to the release of methane gas resulting from the decomposition of food waste, which affects global warming,” SWCorp chairman Datuk Rizalman Mokhtar said in a statement.