SOS Foundation distribute food in the ancient Puri Kukuh
DENPASAR, NETIZENBALI.com - Scholars of Sustenance (SOS), the largest food rescue foundation in South East Asia, held a substantial food distribution in the ancient castle of Puri Kukuh in the Tabanan Regency on Wednesday, November 30, 2022.
Seven days a week, SOS rescues tons of excess foods from commercial entities, avoiding perfectly good surplus food ending up in the landfill emitting methane gasses. SOS has helped hungry families by serving over 3 million nutritious meals in Bali just during COVID, and overall 25 million meals since inception, with a hardworking staff of 80+ people and cool-chain technology.
This two ton food distribution was the beginning in a long row of G20 donations this month to the people of Indonesia. Viking Sunset Studios in Bali donated Idr 300,000,000 to SOS to help facilitate hundreds of thousands of meals before the end of 2022. This is done for expediency by mainly rice deliveries to three locations: Bali (following the tons of food already rescued every day until now), SOS’ new Java offices in Banyuwangi, and the earthquake disaster area of Cianjur, Java, kickstarting SOS’ Jakarta office.
“SOS has for years obtained these surplus foods from manufacturers, supermarkets and hotels, but Bali has recovered slower than we anticipated, and SOS gets far less foods now than at our pre-COVID levels. So, while waiting for the generosity of our wonderful food donors to flow again, we had to help SOS immediately get nutrition to those most in need”, says Bo H. Holmgreen, President and CEO, Viking Sunset Studios, and also founder of the non-profit SOS. Mr. Holmgreen was a speaker at the recently held G20 conference in Indonesia under the theme of Food Security.
He added “The world has a food distribution problem. Every day we produce 10+ billion peoples worth of food. We are 8 billion inhabitants, yet one billion of us goes to bed hungry every night. SOS was created in 2016 to attack this problem by optimizing society better, rescuing good food and safely getting it same day to hungry people.”
“We encourage all hotels, supermarkets, and food manufacturers to never throw away anything still edible. Unsellable, ugly, wilted, broken packaging, almost expired, or whatever – if it’s edible we need to get it to hungry people for free. SOS, we are experts in food safety, we have the cool chain technology to get these surplus foods safely into the stomachs of those who deserve it, and we are less expensive than trash collectors! We like to talk about Food Equity, enabling access to good nutrition based on need and desperation rather than only the money in your hand”, adds Ratna Soebrata, General Manager of SOS Indonesia.
“We will use this infusion of funds to make more deliveries of food in Java island, and open up SOS offices in Jakarta and Banyuwangi. We are excited as SOS can now continue the success of millions of meals not going to the landfills, and we can serve our noble environmental mission while spreading good nourishment to people. COVID changed everything, but we will still manage to reach over one million meals served this year, thanks to the generosity of Viking Sunset Studios. Of course, with more donations of both food and money from more donors, we can expand even more, so please rally around us in SOS to help the people of Indonesia and honour the Indonesian G20 theme of Food Security".
SOS Thailand and SOS Philippines enjoy large contributions from corporate partners, and all of SOS works extensively with CSR programs everywhere. Sustainability is now the measurement of success in many companies, and SOS therefore partners with all future-minded corporations willing to assist in a better, greener and more sustainable world.
SOS Thailand is holding the Zero Summit conference in Bangkok for hundreds of likeminded individuals and companies on December 10th, 2022.
This G20 donation to SOS will be turned into nutrition in the coming weeks, across Bali in places such as Tabanan, Karangasem, Jembrana, and Nusa Penida. Outside Bali, in Banyuwangi and the earthquake disaster zone Cianjur close to Jakarta in Java. Each will receive 10+ tons of rice while looking forward to the SOS operations coming there for SOS food rescue and distribution. With now Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia the three key countries operated in by SOS, the impact is huge, the education of people on food waste reduction and re-purposing of the necessary food losses helps the world, and SOS is proud to contribute to our world becoming a kinder and cleaner place in the theme of G20 2022. (NB/*)
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