PETALING JAYA, March 24 — A Malaysian social enterprise has launched #Food4Frontliners to provide much-needed hearty meals for healthcare workers who are burning the midnight oil to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

The project is spearheaded by GoJob, a job matching platform for the marginalised community in Malaysia, and its founder Zarina Ismail-Omar Hon under the Projek Wawasan Rakyat (POWR) movement.

Since March 15, the team has been providing meals every night to staff in the emergency department and the Covid-19 team at Sungai Buloh Hospital and Serdang Hospital.

Zarina told Malay Mail that the idea for the project came after a conversation with Serdang Hospital occupational safety and health unit head Dr Ferwahn Fairis, whose Facebook post on the tough working conditions faced by the Covid-19 screening team went viral two weeks ago.

"I asked him, ‘Hey doc, what can we do for the frontliners? I’m sure the hospital provides food for you guys, so what else do you need?’

"And he said that as a matter of fact, they are actually short of food. Some of them work so late, their shift is from 8pm to 8am and they often don’t have time to eat.

"To make things worse, Serdang Hospital’s cafeteria is not open at the moment, so they need food,” she said.

Zarina then reached out to PichaEats, Masala Wheels, Mozer’s, Serasi Catering by Puan Sri Nisa Bakri, and GoJob’s very own Chef Saida to provide meals for the project with orders placed up until mid-April.

Boxes of fish curry and rice prepared by Serasi Catering were delivered to the Covid-19 team at Serdang Hospital. — Pictures via Facebook/gojobmalaysia

Besides ensuring that medical staff can get healthy meals instead of fast food like McDonald’s and KFC, Zarina said it was a good initiative to support local food and beverage (F&B) businesses too as many of them have been struggling ever since the movement control order (MCO) was enforced.

"Masala Wheels has a restaurant and they are having problems with all the restrictions that have been put in place, so at least with this, they can survive.

"It’s the same with PichaEats. Their beneficiaries are on the verge of being pushed out of their homes so this is a good avenue for them to stay afloat.

"We also have chefs from GoJob who are food enthusiasts and caterers like Puan Sri Nisa Bakri, who are all professionals who can make good quality food.”

Familiar names like bakery chain Rotiboy and bubble tea brand JLD Dragon have also joined #Food4Frontliners to sponsor delicious add-ons for the meals.

Zarina noted that any surplus funds raised from #Food4Frontliners will be used to buy daily essentials for the hospitals which will be dropped off along with the meals every evening.

"Some of the hospitals don’t need meals, but they require other supplies such as snacks, disinfectant wipes, toilet paper, antibacterial shower gel, toothbrush, and things like that.

"They also need thermal scanners, which are in shortage all over the world and prices for them have been marked up.

"Our priority is food at the moment but we are trying to give other things as well where needed.”

Zarina said GoJob is currently delivering more than 100 meals for staff at Sungai Buloh Hospital and Serdang Hospital each night and they hope to expand the number of meals by raising more funds soon.

Members of the public who wish to pitch in can bank in their donations to Public Bank Berhad 3212015428 (GoJob Sdn Bhd) with the reference Covid-19 Food, along with the donor’s name and contact number.

For more information, check out GoJob’s Facebook.