Besides increasing the amount of food items to be distributed to the beneficiaries of Food from the Heart, the purpose of carrying out food drives in primary schools is also to educate the primary school students about the poverty situation in Singapore and cultivate a spirit of giving into these students.

This is the first time we are conducting food drives and so we were a little unclear about the proper procedure. However, all we wanted to do was to achieve our aim of collecting food and alleviate the plight of the poor. Thus, we did our best and spent much time and efforts into ensuring a successful food drive at Nan Hua Primary School.

To begin with, we planned a presentation to the students at an assembly period and this was conducted in the form of a skit. We had hoped that it will appeal to the students more which will in turn effectively bring across our message. This was our group’s first attempt at presenting to primary school students and so before the skit started, we felt rather nervous. During the presentation, we were able to see that the students were amused by our interesting skit and they were very active and enthusiastic. They even came up with very creative suggestions to alleviate the poverty situation in Singapore. We felt very accomplished and had a great sense of achievement after the presentation. Judging from their participation, we knew that we have brought across our message. Following the presentation, we waited for the days of collection and hoped for positive response.

On the next week, only three members of our group were able to be present. This is because one of them went for a school camp; another went for the Beijing Satellite Campus Program and the last person went for a sabbatical which lasts the whole day. Therefore, with the remaining three of us, we encountered several problems with the packing and sorting of the collected food items. With only 3 pairs of hands, we struggled to pack the food items into Food from the Heart plastic bags within the limited time period that we had. Nonetheless, we did all we could and persevered with the process. No doubt it was tiring and the amount of food never seemed to get lesser, we constantly motivated one another and continued to do our best.

Although time wasn' t on our side, we managed to pack a substantial amount of food items in the limited space that we have. Seeing that the school was also a little upset over the fact that the office space was filled with food, we felt greatly pressurized too. With still about 10% of the food left unpacked, we felt really helpless. Therefore, we consulted our external mentor and he gladly volunteered to help us sort and pack the remaining food before they were transported back to the warehouse. The three of us felt relieved upon hearing that but we knew that this was a lesson to be learnt. We have to acquire the necessary knowledge and know the correct procedure when doing such exhausting tasks. Sorting and packing of food seemed easy in the first place to us, however, after our experience, we knew that we have to be organized and clear of what we have to do to ensure a successful food drive. At the end of the day, we collected a total of $3485.07 worth of food. We are very proud of our achievement and equipped with our lesson, we vowed to do better in the next food drive and not to commit similar mistakes again.

Bertram Lim