Sep 24, 20202 min read

Scholars of Sustenance doubling food portions for the needy

SOS Bali distributing carepacks and foods to Balinese People | Yayasan SOS Bali membagikan makanan dan sembako kepada warga Bali — Villagers attending the SOS Bali distribution program at Pupuan Village, Tabanan, Bali

The Indonesian island of Bali is hurting. The island was heavily dependent on tourism, which ended abruptly with COVID travel restrictions. Hotels and restaurants now closed for months keeps furloughed and laid-off workers in a constant state of waiting with no income, and a growing fear for the future. Staff is waiting for tourism to return to feed their families again, but even with Bali's fairly low COVID numbers, this will take longer with hunger and malnutrition sadly spreading.

Scholars Of Sustenance (SOS) – a food rescue charity in Asia, was formed to optimize food supplies by saving edible foods from ending up in landfills emitting methane gasses. Rescuing food from 100+ partners such as hotels and retailers, SOS was hugely successful until suddenly the entire hospitality industry had to temporarily shut down due to COVID. SOS has since 2017 daily rescued tons of excess foods from hotels, retailers, and restaurants – however, in March this year SOS saw its surplus food donations disappear overnight. Including rescue food and other sources of nutrition, SOS has already served over 7 million meals.

The SOS Bali Rescue Kitchen facilitated by Rumah Sanur cooks over 2,500 meals daily. The SOS Bali Millions Of Meals activity has launched the "Feeding2020 campaign" for individuals to donate towards food from the SOS Rescue kitchen. In addition, generous donations from Nestle, Classroom of Hope, McDonalds, and many others have helped generate more meals. Hundreds of volunteers and staff have cooked every day, resulting in over a quarter million nutritious meals distributed with SOS Bali cooling trucks under police escorts to villages, slums, and many selected areas of utter despair across Thailand and Indonesia.

Realizing hunger is growing, SOS focused on nutritious ingredients to help boost immune systems. SOS Bali cooling trucks go all over the island, even to inaccessible mountain villages as well as deep inside the capital of Denpasar, with different types of nutrition suited to the recipients, from cooked meals to care packages. These portions of food are now being doubled to last 10 days for the lucky recipients. SOS Bali is expanding the program and constantly need donations towards more food and transport logistics.