Groundup Features: Send Laksa Love

Carina from Send Laksa Love with local hawkers (PHOTO: SEND LAKSA LOVE)

In this edition of Groundup Features: we speak with Carina and find out what inspired her to start Send Laksa Love, an initiative which tackles food insecurity among vulnerable groups whilst also preserving the local hawker culture.

Hello Carina, please tell us a little about yourself!

I'm Carina, a fresh graduate who has always been passionate about helping the elderly and children. I always knew that I wanted to help others, and I grew up volunteering for various causes, but I never dreamed of starting my own initiative. 

What inspired you to start Send Laksa Love?

When COVID-19 hit, I knew that some people were affected more than others, and I really wanted to be able to help in any way I can. I had just come back home (to Singapore) so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to reach out to those in need in my community. As an international student abroad, I always craved Singapore's local delicacies of Hokkien Mee and Chicken rice. However, when I came back, several of our favourite hawker aunties and uncles' stalls were either closed or deserted due to the circuit breaker measures. So I was inspired to start Send Laksa Love in hopes to tackle food insecurity among vulnerable groups while preserving the local hawker culture in Singapore. 

What keeps you going?

What keeps me going is definitely the big smiles I see on the faces of our beneficiaries, just knowing that they appreciate the help that we're able to give them, be it big or small, makes it all worth it. Beyond that, it's also the unwavering support that we've received from our friends, family, donors and grantors, knowing that they believe in us and our cause has kept our initiative alive.

Lastly, how do you hope your initiative helps Singapore become the City of Good?

We need to start small, from our community, and the people around us. With this initiative, we've been quite fortunate to have several of our friends and family wanting to volunteer and take part in our distributions or identification of hawkers. So I think our initiative has provided an avenue, even if small, to motivate them to take the action to help others. Hopefully, this will create a ripple effect whereby their friends and family are encouraged to help others as well.

* This feature has been edited for clarity

About the author:

Jannelle is Content Producer at Groundup Central. Armed with her camera, she looks forward to meeting & documenting the everyday heroes of our lives.