KOTA TINGGI, Dec 18 (Sin Chew Daily) — After receiving a call for assistance at about 1pm the past Sunday, 48-year-old founder of Kembara Kitchen William Cheah set off with his team and equipment from Shah Alam and reached the temporary relief centre in Kota Tinggi within 24 hours at 11am the following morning.

William Cheah said his team is a Rakan NADMA (National Disaster Management Agency) which normally operates in coordination with the agency.

He told the media at the Kota Tinggi Vocational School used as a temporary relief centre for flood victims that Kembara Kitchen was set up in 2015 after he joined the East Coast flood relief operation with some friends in 2014.

While taking part in the operation, Cheah said he found that the operation lacked an efficient central kitchen system to prepare food for the flood victims, a discovery which later prompted him to set up Kembara Kitchen.

He said the capital for Kembara Kitchen came from his F&B catering business.

“We will normally set a budget for each of our operations. For example, this time we have mobilised 12 volunteers with a basic budget of around five or six thousand ringgit, including transportation cost, food and lodging for volunteers as well as purchase of cooking ingredients.”

4 hours to prepare

Cheah said normally they had around four hours to prepare food for hundreds or even a thousand people, and as such the food has to be nutritious, easy to prepare and requiring no refrigeration.

The Kembara Kitchen team will normally use ingredients that are nutritious and easy to stock such as eggs, rice, spaghetti, canned sardine, mushroom soup, macaroni and other foods which are easy to prepare and do not require refrigeration or sophisticated cooking skills.

“Two of my volunteers are also my employees. They can lead the other volunteers in food preparation.

“Each volunteer is responsible for food for about 100 people so that we can finish preparing the food for a few hundred or even a thousand people within the time frame.”

He said flood relief was not something easy, as they had to work until 1am and wake up at five the next morning to start a new day’s work.

The team was in Terengganu just ten days earlier to prepare food for the flood victims there.