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Lotus’s Malaysia, Kechara Soup Kitchen mark 10 years of partnership with food donation drive
Lotus’s Malaysia and Kechara Soup Kitchen are marking World Food Day 2026 and 10 years of partnership with Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu (Add One. Share One.), an in-store food donation initiative that invites customers to turn everyday grocery shopping into an opportunity to give.
For the past decade, Lotus’s and Kechara Soup Kitchen have worked together to ensure that safe, edible surplus food reaches communities in need. Today, Kechara Soup Kitchen regularly collects surplus food from 19 Lotus’s outlets, helping redirect food that would otherwise go to waste.
Through Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu, customers can purchase additional essential dry-food items during their regular shopping and place them in a designated Kechara Soup Kitchen donation bin. The campaign runs from Oct 16 to Nov 16, with the World Food Day activation held on Oct 19 at Lotus’s Kepong.
“World Food Day reminds us that how we value, manage and share food matters. This year is particularly meaningful as we mark 10 years of collaboration with our charity partner, Kechara Soup Kitchen,” said Lotus’s Malaysia corporate services executive director Azliza Baizura Azmel.
“Most of us walk into a supermarket thinking about what we need for our own table. Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu invites us to think about someone else’s, too. Through this initiative, we are making it easier for customers to add one more item for someone else.”
Cutting food waste, feeding families
The initiative builds on Lotus’s wider commitment to reducing food waste through its #KitakanJiran Food Surplus Programme. Together with community partners, including Kechara Soup Kitchen and Food Aid Foundation, Lotus’s redirects safe, edible surplus food, including fruits, vegetables and bakery items away from landfills and towards communities in need.
Since 2016, Lotus’s has redirected 2.4 million kilogrammes of food from landfills to over 120,000 families, demonstrating the scale of impact that can be created through sustained collaboration between businesses and community partners.
“For us, sustainability has to translate into practical action and meaningful impact. Reducing food waste and helping food reach communities in need are part of that responsibility. Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu gives our customers another opportunity to contribute alongside us,” Azliza added.
Small donations, meaningful impact
All customer donations collected through Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu will be channelled through Kechara Soup Kitchen’s Food Bank operations and distributed as dry food packs to families in need across urban and rural communities.
“Our partnership with Lotus’s began 10 years ago, involving 39 stores across its network. A decade on, that relationship continues, reflecting what can be achieved when a partnership is built around a shared purpose and sustained over time. Today, we regularly collect surplus food from 19 Lotus’s outlets, helping ensure that food which can still serve a purpose reaches communities that can benefit from it,” said Kechara Soup Kitchen general manager Justin Cheah.
According to him, Tambah Satu, Kongsi Satu takes the longstanding partnership a step further by giving customers a simple way to become part of the journey.
A packet of rice, a bottle of cooking oil or another essential food item may seem small on its own, but when many customers choose to give, those contributions add up.
“Every item donated through this initiative goes into our Food Bank operations to support communities in need,” Cheah added.
Suggested contributions include rice, noodles or pasta, canned food, cooking oil and UHT milk, at participating outlets.
“Ten years has shown us that meaningful impact is not created in a day. It is built through consistency, partnership and a willingness to keep finding better ways to contribute. One extra item in your basket can become one more item on another family’s table,” Azliza concluded.
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