MPA Community – Community Event @ Willing Hearts

Willing Hearts is a secular, non-denominational and non-affiliated charity, which operates a soup kitchen that prepares, cooks and distributes about 4,500 daily meals to the needy, 365 days a year. Beneficiaries include the elderly, the disabled, low-income families, children from single-parent or otherwise poverty-stricken families, and migrant workers in Singapore. Volunteers helped out with the preparation, cooking, and the cleaning up after the day’s activities.

The volunteers for session 1 arrived at 5:30am, and they were assigned to prepare the various ingredients, and to cook, pack and deliver the food. The volunteers for Session 2 assisted in cleaning the kitchen and the preparation work for the next day’s activities.

Everyone enjoyed this meaningful morning at the soup kitchen and commented:

“I am extremely impressed with the community service initiative by our MPA alumni and students. We are honoured to be the first master programme at SMU to organise annual community projects. I joined the first session in the early morning, and ended up washing plates for two hours in the backyard. It was a memorable and meaningful experience for me too.” – Professor Wang Jiwei, Programme Director of the MPA Programme, reflected on the community event.

“MPA started its organised community engagement in 2015 when we hosted 39 children from disadvantaged background to our campus. I am glad the tradition continues this year with our service at Willing Hearts, helping to cook for the less fortunate amongst us. Going forward, in celebration of MPA 10th birthday, I am pleased that the MPA Alumni group has decided to raise a community service projects fund (https://giving.smu.edu.sg/give-now/mpa-endowment-fund). This will ensure that MPA will continue to bring together our students, staff, faculty and alumni for a good cause for the society we live in. This is especially memorable to me as I end my 10-year directorship of the MPA.” – Professor Themin Suwardy, Programme Co-Director of the MPA programme.

“After trying out a few procedures in the kitchen I ended up becoming a specialist in scrambling eggs. Being part of the big process of producing scramble eggs, I saw how well designed process and procedures can help boost the overall efficiency and avoid chaos” – Chris Niu Xinyu, family member of MPA alumni, Zhang Mingyue.

"I would like to thank the organizing committee for arranging this activity which is meaningful and opened my eye to what's happening at a little corner in one of the wealthiest countries in the world!  It was a shock to me that there could have been 4,500 persons living without food if not for the Soup Kitchen programme at Willing Hearts.  I salute the regular volunteers especially those who do the 5 am 'shift' everyday.  Hope more will help in one way or another ~ with their time, funds, and spreading the words." – Jean Thoh, MPA Alumni, Class of 2015.

“Interesting and meaningful Sunday activity” – Peter Neo, MPA alumni, Class of 2015.

“I volunteered to deliver about 300 prepared meals to various locations in Singapore. Some were delivered to distribution centres, while others were delivered directly to the homes of the underprivileged. In the process, I witnessed and interacted with people I would not have met, and who expressed their gratefulness for bringing food to them.” – Brian Chua, MPA student. 

“I volunteered to cook the vegetable stew and prepare rice. Before today, I’ve never had this experience of cooking in large pots, which was quite a hard process that I had not expected. But later when seeing the food we cooked were being delivered to hundreds of underprivileged people, I felt it's truly worth the effort. If there would be more of such activities in future, I would love to attend again.” – Zhang Chenyuan, MPA student.

“I volunteered with the food packing as well as food delivering on that day. We started from 5:30am in the kitchen helping with cooking and packing of the food together with other volunteers. Around 8:30am, we delivered food to eight different locations in the northwest of Singapore. We started our journey from Willing Hearts, but came back with heavy hearts after interacting with the underprivileged people. We are encouraged to attend more voluntary activities in the future.” – Yong Rongrong, MPA student.

“It was a team based effort. I could hardly do the whole work without the cooperation of another volunteer such as cooking the egg on a large rectangular-sized oven, we need to take care of every corner where the egg spread to avoid burning it. Exhausted as I was after five rounds of cooking, I was amazed by how much eggs we have cooked. The volunteer activity was very fulfilling.” – Jiang Wei, MPA student.

Initiated in 2014, the yearly CSR activity provides a platform for the MPA community to actively engage and deepen the interactions with the society. It aims to instil continued passion in community engagement for the long-term development of MPA students and graduates. Through these activities, the community learn about social responsibility, teamwork, compassion and empathy for others. It is also a great opportunity for students to interact with the MPA Programme Directors – Prof Jiwei and Prof Themin, MPA Staff – Eileen and Emelia, as well as the MPA alumni.

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