PUTRAJAYA (March 18): The Malaysian government is expanding the Food Bank Malaysia programme to reach out to 20 public universities, in light of the plight of B40 students not being able to afford more than a meal a day as highlighted recently.

In support of the programme are thirteen supermarket franchises that have agreed to provide food surplus from a combined 430 outlets nationwide, said Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution today.

Speaking at a press conference here, Saifuddin said student associations will take ownership of the programme.

"[The programme's] sustainability will be more secure as they know the plight, and they know their friends [who are affected]," he said.

"We provide assistance in the form of food, and the student associations will organise [the distribution] more effectively," he added.

Concurrently, the Ministry of Finance has approved the release of some RM3 million for the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to acquire 14 lorries complete with chillers to provide logistics support in distributing the food from the outlets to the universities.

The efforts are an extension of the Food Bank Malaysia programme which was launched in December last year to assist 186,354 heads of households living below the poverty line nationwide.

Last week, it was reported that students from B40 families in local universities, including in the renowned University of Malaya, were able to afford only one budget meal a day at price of under RM2.50, as available assistance such as food coupons were not able to reach all of those affected.