KUALA LUMPUR: Gema Malaysia Youth Organisation aims to help the needy and reduce food wastage at Ramadan bazaars through the implementation of the two-pronged MYSaveFood@Ramadan project.

       The initiative, which is entering its sixth year, collects unsold food from selected Ramadan bazaars to be distributed to the less fortunate in nearby areas.

       MYSaveFood@Ramadan captain Fakhrul Razi Zainol Abidin said a total of 4,119.80kg of food and beverages were collected from traders at 11 Ramadan bazaars in several states, within 12 days of the campaign starting on April 4.

       "This project started in 2016 but it came to a halt in 2020 due to the implementation of the movement control order to curb the spread of Covid-19.

       "We will identify each representative or recipient, for example, tahfiz centres, mosques or homeless people. However, if the food donation is excessive, we will contact representatives in other areas and ask if they need it or not,” he told Bernama.

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

       Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Gema branch chairman Vikneshvaran Tanabalam @ Hadi hoped that more volunteers would come forward to help make this project a success and increase the involvment of more Ramadan bazaars.

       "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 interested to become volunteers could visit bit.ly/VolunteerMySF to register or the Gema Malaysia Youth Organisation’s Facebook page for more information.

       Sharing the same aspiration, SWCorp also organised an engagement session for its "Hargai Makanan Elak Pembaziran" campaign in conjunction with Ramadan with the theme #JomTapau which aims to reduce the amount of food waste that ended up in landfills to combat pollution and global warming.

       "Some 36% of the total waste disposed at landfills comprises food and of that amount, 76% is food waste that cannot be avoided while the remaining 24% is food waste that can be avoided.

       "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 the food waste. "The global warming impact of methane is 34 times greater than carbon dioxide,” said SWCorp chairman Datuk Rizalman Mokhtar.

       He added that SWCorp would continue to hold engagement sessions to educate the public and food handlers to appreciate food to reduce the production of solid waste, especially food waste. - Bernama