We vividly remember our Opening Day back in July 2012, we thought we covered most aspects of the business until we reached closing time. It was a very long day and we felt a great sense of guilt to throw away the unsold bread (there was quite a lot). We didn’t think it was a good idea to start calling our family and friends to come and pick up the leftover bread at 10pm.
Immediately we thought about all the less fortunate people who might not have enough to eat. We thought about the . It was a Saturday night, "Kechara" and "Jalan Imbi" popped in our minds. Without a second thought we quickly pack all the bread into small bags and rushed to Kechara Soup Kitchen at Jalan Imbi. We were fortunate to bump into our common friend and he volunteered to help connect to the rest of the volunteers who were already at the field. The food distribution was done by 11.30pm. The joy of seeing a piece of Tedboy bread in the hands of a hungry person was priceless.
Our minds switched to the next closing day and the next. Ti-Ratana Welfare Home was where I celebrated my birthday a year earlier. Fulfilling the wish list for the lovely kids (school shoes and uniforms) and old folks (Milo and biscuits), sharing my happiness with them on my special day was a great moment in my life.
I am pretty certain that they will like our bread and feels it is the best way to give back to the community, what more if we can do this every day. We are pleased to work out a daily pick up from Ti- Ratana during weekdays. We are glad that they trust the quality of Tedboy products that we are going to feed them. We also subsequently work out a weekly Saturday schedule with Kechara and volunteers at various churches who genuinely want to help the less fortunate.
Such a simple idea can turn out to be a challenge at times. We encountered coordination hiccups between outlets, change in drivers or ownerships; we were criticised for not supporting enough and even had to bake extra batch when we do not have enough left over. All these are part of our daily initiatives to help the kids, old folks and homeless.
The thought of our bread fulfilling someone else’s basic needs of a meal during hunger continues to drive us to do this initiative daily, even after 4 years.
It is just a piece of bread.
It is a piece of bread.
Always baking,
Papa & Mama Ted