Sunway City Kuala Lumpur, 22 August 2022 – Sunway Group, one of Southeast Asia’s leading conglomerates, is reaffirming its commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG), particularly Goal 2: Zero Hunger by 2030, through its flagship #SunwayforGood Food Aid programmes including Sunway Meal Pack-a-thon with US-based NGO Rise Against Hunger and Sunway Food Bank.
Sunway Meal Pack-a-thon with Rise Against Hunger
The group recently kicked off its nationwide Meal Pack-a-thon series in collaboration with international hunger relief agency Rise Against Hunger on 16 August 2022 at Sunway Pyramid with 60,000 meals packed by close to 200 Sunway staff volunteers.
The meal pack-a-thon series was officiated by Sunway Group Founder and Chairman Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah AO witnessed by Rise Against Hunger Malaysia President Tiki Keh and Rise Against Hunger Malaysia Advisory Board Member Richard Wong.
Sunway Group Founder and Chairman Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah said, “The issue of food security is one that we at Sunway take seriously, and we are committed to supporting our communities in need. We firmly believe that no corporation can live apart from the communities it serves. In the lead up to Sunway’s 50th Anniversary in 2024, we have committed to packing two million meals for the underserved and undernourished communities nationwide.”
For this year’s nationwide meal pack-a-thon, Sunway is targeting to pack a total of 270,000 meals with the help of more than 650 Sunway volunteers groupwide and student volunteers from various Sunway educational institutions throughout the country. The 2022 pack-a-thon will take place in Sunway City Iskandar Puteri, Sunway Penang, Sunway City Ipoh and Sunway Velocity throughout the months of August and September.
These 270,000 meals will go to 4,500 beneficiaries from the underserved Orang Asli communities, orphanages, senior citizen homes, and refugees across Malaysia. Sunway will also extend its food aid to the extreme poor in Sri Lanka amid the ongoing bankruptcy and economic crisis.
Since 2014 and to date, Sunway has packed one million meals which have been distributed to Orang Asli communities, refugees, urban poor and the underserved communities in Malaysia and Timor-Leste, as well as orphanages in Cambodia; with help from over 4,000 volunteers who have clocked in well over 22,000 volunteerism hours.
Every meal contains rice, lentils, dehydrated vegetables, and essential vitamins that make up a balanced diet. Not only does this initiative effectively expand Rise Against Hunger’s food packaging capacity, it engages our people in a meaningful hands-on experience to translate love into action.
#SunwayforGood Food Bank
Sunway’s initiative to address food security and to combat hunger for the underserved communities has earned the recognition from the Malaysia Book of Records as having the largest food bank drive by any conglomerate in Malaysia.
To date, close to 190,000 kilogrammes of food has been packed and distributed to some 70,000 beneficiaries nationwide alongside long-term key partners - Malaysian Red Crescent Society (MRCS), Selangor Youth Community (SAY), Yayasan Kebajikan Negara (YKN), Development of Human Resources for Rural Areas (DHRRA), the Food Aid Foundation, The Lost Food Project (TLFP) and FFM Berhad.
The Sunway Food Bank is the group’s primary response to addressing national food security via a two-pronged approach. In addition to its role as a donor, the Sunway Food Bank acts as a platform for members of the public to contribute to the cause as well, therefore encouraging fellow Malaysians to be a part of this noble cause in the shared food sustainability mission. Donations collected from Sunway and the public are then channelled to communities in need through the group’s network of food-access organisations who ensure that beneficiaries receive their most visceral need.
Sunway’s Ongoing Efforts to Address Food Security
Apart from CSR initiatives under the group’s flagship #SunwayforGood umbrella, Sunway is also addressing food security through organic and urban farming.
As part of the group’s commitment to sustainable food production, 20 acres of land in Sunway City Ipoh was repurposed for the development of Sunway Organic Farm – with the aim to produce at least 150,000 kilogrammes of pesticide-free fruits and vegetables by 2030 through organic farming.
Sunway XFarms will soon launch Kuala Lumpur city centre’s largest urban indoor vertical farm. The new Sunway XFarms hub at Sunway Tower is expected to produce at least 13,000 kilogrammes of pesticide-free vegetables per month for the urban population of Kuala Lumpur. Sunway XFarms will further expand to one million square feet of decentralised smart farms in the near future to generated 32 million kilogrammes of produce per year.
