http://sg.news.yahoo.com/lunchtime-hero--singaporean-skips-meal-daily-to-bring-food-to-needy-022410724.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
But there is no time for the 62-year-old to eat. He has an important date – with the poor, elderly and disabled of the Chai Chee estate.
They are counting on Tan to bring them lunch, which he has unfailingly done every single day for over a year now.
Tan’s routine is simple enough. Food arrives – courtesy of non-profit soup kitchen Willing Hearts – and the skinny, bespectacled engineering officer fills his bicycle basket with meal packets before hand-delivering them to households with immobile residents.
Making the rounds takes only 10 to 15 minutes, Tan said, and then he heads back to his workplace – sans lunch for himself.
The amiable father of two doesn’t think twice about it, saying, “Without us (himself and the Willing Hearts volunteers), these people will really have no food to eat.”
“To be frank, to get a volunteer like me to go house-to-house, it’s a bit difficult,” said Tan, who is married to a 58-year-old housewife. “But sometimes… must do some sacrifice (sic).”
Does he ever get hungry skipping lunch?
“No problem,” smiled Tan. “I have a heavy breakfast, and a tea break around 3pm.”
He stays in Lengkong Tiga, and only started volunteering in Chai Chee since late 2011, but Tan’s exertions have already warmed him to the residents, who chimed in with compliments of his “kind” and “loving” nature, as well as how he “treats old people well”.
Tan described how some of the citizens treat him “like a brother”, openly sharing their concerns with him – whether it’s having no money to pay utility bills or demanding to see their MP.
There also appears to be a growing demand for Tan’s chivalry.
At the food collection point, as he prepares to pedal off into the scorching midday heat, a gray-haired Madam Tan informs him that her “legs have no strength”.
Again, it’s “no problem” for Tan, who replies, “Let me know (where you stay), I will send food to you.”
New additions to his delivery route aside, Tan also has to deal with food complaints running the gamut from uncooked rice to overly-salty vegetables.
There’s more. “Sometimes I give them rice and they want bee hoon (rice vermicelli),” he laughed. “I have to explain to them, the food is prepared by Willing Hearts, my duty is just to deliver the food to you.”
For everything else, he’s more than glad to be of service, whether it’s painting houses or helping out with spring cleaning.
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