We are pressured to do one celebrity related charity story every moth at the desk. An unsustainable goal when you have half a dozen journalists doing the same thing every month. There not enough celebrity powered charities in the country to drive the Celebrity Causes column for long.

This story screeches the definition of a story that would fit the column. But, I believed in the story.

The “celebrity” in the story is Shentel Lee, socialite, business woman, and a member of a privileged family.  When her father-in-law passed away at the beginning of then pandemic, she and her extended family traveled to east Malaysia to pay their respects. Then the lockdown happened.

She and her family were comfortably safe within the family mansion. But, when they heard there are other families in the region who needed help, the family snapped into action.

Using their collective resources and business know-how, Shantel Lee and her family build, started, and launched, The Kuching Food Aid. A self-sustaining charity powered by the community and local businesses that is still running and helping people to this day.

There’s no personality driven, fame seeking, media centric benevolence here. And that to me is a story worth writing about.

The desk kept the story for so long that the column it was meant for closed long before the story was published.