The Nasi Lemak Project (TNLP)

The Nasi Lemak Project (TNLP) started in 2012, funded by the US Embassy of Kuala Lumpur to eradicate poverty through volunteerism. We do street feeding, free educational classes for communities in low-cost housing areas and various empowerment projects for the urban poor. Later, as feeding and education projects does not help the urban poor in the short run - we pivoted to a social business in 2015. As a social business, TNLP recruited potential, but extremely poor families to be food enterprises. We made this possible through proper F&B training, microcapital and market creation. TNLP managed to establish its own F&B company of the same name, called "The Nasi Lemak Project (TNLP) Sdn Bhd", specialising in Nasi Lemak and Malaysian food sales, through office deliveries, catering services and mobile food retail. Other than doubling the incomes for underprivileged families, this business enabled TNLP to be self-sustainable to do more social impact projects. The Nasi Lemak Project was awarded the International Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award in 2014 for its efforts in eradicating poverty, and is the first in Asia to receive this honour. The social business model won Agensi Inovasi Malaysia's Berbudi Berganda Social Innovation Challenge 2015, DiGi WWWOW Award in Social Impact 2015 and The Star Golden Heart Award in 2015.