Hot meals for frontliners, a Sabahan’s labour of love

Packed lunches being arranged outside Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1 in Kota Kinabalu, for distribution to the healthcare workers.

KOTA KINABALU: Rebecca Chin could not have imagined how a personal food drive for the overworked healthcare workers in Sabah would later turn into a full-fledged daily mission.

Chin had felt helpless looking at Sabah’s tired healthcare workers, who have been battered by record-high numbers of Covid-19 cases, and had wanted to give something back to the frontliners.

She spoke to her friends Kathie and Shone Majimbun, a husband-and-wife team who run Shoney’s, an eatery in town, and they immediately jumped at the chance to help out.

“They quickly agreed to help and with that the catering service to frontliners started on Oct 20. We had enough food to deliver free hot lunches for three days. However, Kathie then told me that several of her friends wanted to chip in as well,” said Chin.

Rebecca Chin (front) with her volunteers and the hot meals to be distributed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1.

“A lot of people heard about it (food initiative) and they started calling me too and sending messages they wanted to help. A restaurant also got in touch asking if they could provide food for a full day,” Chin said.

What had begun as a personal objective for three days will now continue for another 14 days.

Chin said the donations did not just come from Sabah alone but also from as far as Brunei.

“All of this is actually people just being kind and generous. They feel so helpless not knowing how they can help so when there are opportunities like these, they say ‘this is my way to help’. I’m only acting as a channel.

Shone (left) and Kathie Majimbun were quick to lend a helping hand to Chin’s hot meals initiative.

“We know we can’t do much but this is just to say we are ever grateful to them (frontliners). We want to make them feel special and that we are behind them,” she said.

Chin said a total of 400 packed lunches are prepared at Shoney’s and delivered to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital 1 (QEH1) every day.

“It’s not easy to prepare 400 meal packs a day but we want to do this. By the time we’re done (after the 17th day), we would have served 6,400 lunches,” she said.

“There are about 600 people on duty at any given time in QEH1, so we leave it to the hospital how they distribute the lunches. There are people donating to other hospitals as well,” she said.

Chin and her friends make sure the healthcare workers are able to enjoy different kinds of meals, such as pasta and fried rice, every day.

The lunches cost RM2,000 to prepare. “So far we are doing this for 17 days but we will continue to do it for as long as we can.”

Chin said friends and family have also helped to supply 20 litres and 300 bottles of sanitisers to the Prisons Department.

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