The idea behind the Food Bank is nice. But perhaps they need better graphic design, and placement of their bins. At least that’s the case of the one located at the canteen below my office. People seem to have mistaken them for a recycling bin. Or, perhaps, the people here are just not thinking smart enough.
To be honest, when I first saw these bins, I thought they were about recycling too. One morning, I decided to get a closer look at the small print. You see, before I came up closer to read, the “headlines” that stood out to me, with my eyesight perhaps not all that good anymore, were these two messages:
- Food Bank
- Deposit your excess food here
So, stuff that I can’t finish, just dump them in here? It’s conveniently located at the canteen. You thinking what I’m thinking here?
But that’s really very odd. Hence my interest that one fine morning to find out what it was. Here’s the gist of it. Food Bank Singapore aims to be the prevailing centralised coordinating organisation for all food donations in Singapore. Their mission? Here:
- Bridge potential donors and members.
- Provide access to and knowledge of cheaper sources of food for members.
- Spread the word on the importance of food resource planning to ensure long-term providence of food for everyone.
- Find creative and alternative ways to maximise use of excess food.
However, I’m sure someone would think these were just a new kind of recycling bins. I opened one of them to take a peek. There, take a look.
This is in one of the four bins, the one labelled “beverages and others”.
Indeed, they got discarded, disposable, beverage cups.