The day started well before sunrise, when a dozen members of the WeWork Singapore team arrived at the Willing Hearts soup kitchen. Slipping on hair nets and plastic gloves, they split into two lines down the center of the gleaming commercial-style kitchen and began arranging freshly cooked meals in takeout containers.
Their goal for the morning: help package 6,093 meals for the needy. The food — which includes dishes like bee hoon, or fried rice vermicelli noodles — would be delivered to a wide range of people who might otherwise go hungry, including the elderly, those with disabilities, and migrant workers.
It was WeWork Singapore’s first joint project with Willing Hearts, a charity almost completely run by volunteers since it was founded in 2005. Based at Kembangan-Chai Chee Community Hub, Willing Hearts aims to “improve the lives of the less privileged by providing them with their daily bread.”
“What we are doing goes beyond just logging hours,” says Soojin Kim, community director of WeWork Singapore. “It’s more about being able to transform someone’s life.”
By 8:30 a.m., the WeWork team climbed into vans to help deliver the meals to neighborhoods around the city.
WeWork opened its first Singapore location, Beach Centre, at the end of 2017. It will soon open another building at 71 Robinson, and has announced two other locations at 22 Cross Street and 60 Anson Road. Around the world, WeWork has 230 locations across 71 cities and 21 countries.
Kim, one of the volunteers who spent the morning assembling meals, says the team is looking forward to partnering with other community groups.
“Even though this might seem like very simple gestures, seeing the value in our actions being brought to life was definitely meaningful for all the volunteers,” she says. “As giving back is something that deeply resonates with all of us here, we are looking forward to rolling out more initiatives in the wider community.”