Not everyone is easy to convince, however. “While a majority of customers are receptive to what we have to say, a fraction of them will go, ‘If you use second-grade fruits, are they even safe to consume?’ While I can’t force them to change their minds, by continuing to educate people that they shouldn’t judge produce based on its appearance because it has the same taste and the same nutrients as conventional-looking produce, I hope [more people] would be willing to listen.”
While there has been an increased awareness of food wastage, Yong says the issue hasn’t received enough attention to allow people to truly understand the negative impact and lost potential of wasted produce. “Let’s talk about food loss first,” she says. “It’s basically food that gets lost at the start of the supply chain and before retail. Take what happens in the farms for example; I had farmers tell me that because of the lack of manpower, acres and acres of fruits are left to hang on trees because there’s no one to harvest them. That’s a lot of produce lost before it even gets on the shelves.
“And retailers have policies where they have to replace the products that are on display for new ones. Just to have the freshest fruit at the front. So, importers would then import at least an additional 30 per cent for them to do that. That incurs extra costs and carbon emissions because we go to imports instead of our local farmers. But it’s so much more cost-efficient if we went to the farmers themselves—and they grow great fruits! We aren’t just looking at the financial losses; we’re looking at a waste of resources as well—did you know that a single banana tree takes half a year to grow? Think about how much effort went into that tree.”
See also: The Lost Food Project's Suzanne Mooney: Rescuing Surplus Food Saves The Planet
Yong, now 21, is trying to solidify TUG’s operations in a more circular model, and while that can get expensive, she sees it as a long-term investment. Since last November, the enterprise has helped nearly 140 families from underserved communities by giving them fresh fruit to eat; supported small businesses by buying unbought fruits; and saved more than 400kg worth of perfectly edible fruits that would have otherwise gone to landfills.
In 2021, Yong and her friends went door to door, giving away cups of gelato to members of low-income communities. When she visited a single mother and her family in the low-cost flats of Lembah Subang, Yong asked the youngest child, a 10-year-old boy named Amir, what he would do if she gave him RM100. He told her he would give it to orphans, because they needed it more than he did. That encounter inspired Yong, and she has plans in the future to expand her scope to work with children, and give them opportunities to upskill and be empowered.
“I was fortunate enough to have the chance to initiate an idea, but these children? They don’t have that,” she says. “But they have dreams—and we want to give them the chance to live them.”