Christine Laimer

 

Breaking Bread with the Needy

 

In 2003, Austrian Christine Laimer set up Food from the Heart to distribute bread to the needy. Today, the non-profit organisation has 1,700 volunteers, and through various programmes, reaches out to 24,600 beneficiaries across Singapore each month.

 

In 2002, when Christine Laimer read in The Straits Times that local bakeries were dumping their leftover bread, it struck her that she could distribute the unsold bread to the needy instead. “It was one of those moments when I had to decide: do I just keep my mouth shut and not act on it? Or do I put into action what’s already forming in my mind?” said Christine. Her daughter, Mercedes, was then eight months old but Christine decided that she could raise her child and also do something to help alleviate hunger among the needy. Thus began Food from the Heart (FFTH) in February 2003. She became CEO and her husband, Henry Laimer, chaired the board. Today, FFTH distributes 28,000kg of unsold bread each month to some 15,000 people across households and welfare homes in Singapore.

Christine, who studied interior design in school, had never run a non-profit organisation. The Laimers had come to Singapore to start a business building automatic warehouses. But once she set her mind on helping the needy, she swung into action. She started by cold-calling restaurants, bakeries and hotels. Said Christine, “I received a resounding result—all the bakeries I approached came on board!” Although some hotels were initially worried that consumers might fall sick after eating unsold bread, they also took to the idea upon hearing that the Grand Hyatt hotel had signed up. Today, FFTH receives support from more than 100 hotels and bakeries. With the help of The Sunday Times and radio station Gold 90.5FM, Christine launched a volunteer recruitment drive. More than 100 people came forward to offer their help. Christine wasted no time in getting the volunteers started. “We would tell them, ‘If you’re okay to volunteer, we have this route on Monday and this other route on Tuesday.’ We trained them immediately and printed their volunteer identification cards on the spot. They were ready to start the next day,” she said. Volunteers were also put on standby until 11.30 every night in case they needed to replace others who could not fulfil their duties. Among the volunteers, there were 50 CityCab drivers who offered to help with the deliveries. Christine said that the organisation could not have taken off without a team of “extraordinary volunteers and staff members” who were always ready to help.

FFTH also won the support of organisations like the Central Singapore Community Development Council (CDC) and Fujitsu Asia. The CDC gave FFTH office space to coordinate its volunteer recruitment drive, while Fujitsu provided it with a tailor-made tracking device to record the number of loaves and buns collected and delivered each day. To determine the beneficiaries of FFTH, Christine began researching which welfare homes to include. She took into consideration their financial status, and the number and dietary requirements of the home’s residents. This information was fed into FFTH’s database. She then devised a delivery system which was easy to use for the volunteers and would ensure that the bread would reach its beneficiaries in good time.

In February 2003, FFTH kicked off its first food distribution programme. No less than 114 routes were planned to collect unsold bread from bakeries for distribution to welfare homes. “We worked like maniacs and had a lot of enthusiastic volunteers helping,” said Christine

In May 2003, FFTH collaborated with the Residents’ Committee in Henderson estate and piloted a self-collection programme to distribute bread to needy residents, or those from households whose per capita income was below $200 a month. A month later, it set up its first self-collection centre at Marine Parade. Fourteen volunteers gathered once a week at the centre to pack bread and non-perishables for the poor. Most of the food was donated through food drives conducted at schools, with hotels, bakeries and supermarkets also providing supplies.

Later on, FFTH also set up self-collection centres in other areas like King George’s Avenue, Jalan Besar, Redhill, Pasir Ris and Nee Soon. Christine enjoyed visiting these centres to meet the volunteers and beneficiaries. “There would be happy tears on these families’ faces, appreciating that someone hadn’t forgotten about them,” she said. FFTH nearly put up the shutters in 2005 as Christine had difficulty paying for the operations. With donations from the President’s Challenge fundraising event and sponsors from NTUC FairPrice, FFTH managed to narrow its deficit.

By 2011, FFTH had 2,000 volunteers, of whom 400 had stayed with them since the beginning, collecting leftover bread from bakeries, hotels and restaurants for distribution to about 8,000 underprivileged individuals each month. Christine said, “We never dreamt that Food from the Heart would become so big. All we wanted to do was save the bread from the incinerator.”

In 2011, the Laimers returned to Austria to take over their family business. Before their departure, Christine received a “very touching and unforgettable” text from a volunteer whom she had recruited in 2002. The text message read, “Don’t worry about FFTH, I promise that I will stay on my bread collection route as long as I shall live!” Said Christine, “This is but one example of the volunteers’ dedication.” She handed over her “baby” to her successors Anson Quek and Ronald Stride, who still run FFTH. “It was a very difficult decision for me,” she said. She still closely follows the activities of FFTH, and looks forward to telling its story to Mercedes, who is now a teenager. Christine said she is “extremely happy” that FFTH is thriving today because of how much she has invested in the organisation. She humbly credits FFTH’s success to her successors.

References

Alexandra Kohut-Cole, “Heeding the call,” accessed June 2015,
http://www.alexandrakohutcole.com/uploads/1/3/5/2/13528844/christine_laimer.pdf

Food From The Heart, 2014 Annual Report, accessed June 2015,
https://foodheart.org/annual_reports_financial_information

Jennani Durai, “Charity founders leaving Singapore,” The Straits Times, November 3 2011.

Mabel Chou, Keng Leong Lee, Chung Piaw Teo and Huan Zheng, “Food from the Heart: Delievering Leftover Bread in Singapore,” National University of Singapore, accessed June 2015, http://bschool.nus.edu/Staff/bizteocp/FFTHcase.pdf

“Mission and History,” Food From the Heart, accessed June 2015,
https://foodheart.org/mission_history

Theresa Tan, “NCSS Concerned Over Possible Conflict of Interest,” The Straits Times,
December 7, 2006.

Victoria Vaughan, “Food from the Heart for the Needy,” The Straits Times, February 8, 2010.

“Worth More Than its Weight in Dough,” The Straits Times, November 24, 2004.

Interview with Christine Laimer in June 2015.

 

 

Christine Laimer
Austria, b.1961