In an effort to aid Covid-19 patients and their families while under home quarantine, Ponderosa Golf & Country Resort has begun supplying packed lunch every day for a month, in collaboration with NGO Freemarket Johor, one of the recipients of the Iskandar Malaysia Social Hero Awards (IMSHA) 2019.
The packed food is distributed to patients and their families who are mostly residents of Taman Cendana flats in Pasir Gudang, as well as to those who have suffered loss of income due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) and the elderly lacking financial support.
“A total of 6,800 packets of lunch will be handed over to volunteers from Freemarket Johor to cover an estimated 36 families and about 250 members of these families,” said Ponderosa GCR general manager Tan Kai Yang. “We started the distribution of packed food on 23 January as soon as we knew there was a need aligned to the spike in Covid-19 numbers, and will continue to contribute till 22 February 2021.”
Rye Yassin of Freemarket Johor shared her concerns about the welfare of the affected Covid-19 patients and their families from the PPRT area on her Facebook page. These problems included loss of jobs, income and inability to go to work due to the MCO. Her concerns sparked the timely collaboration with Ponderosa.
“The contribution from Ponderosa Golf & Country Resort provided the answer to my prayers and I wish to thank the management for their timely generosity,” said Rye.
Ponderosa had carried out a similar initiative last year during the first MCO, providing a total of 22,600 packed lunch (300 packs a day) between May 26 and June 9, in collaboration with Yayasan Kebajikan Suria Johor Bahru; together they were able to reach out to 7,500 people who had been displaced due to loss of jobs, income and homes during the MCO.
