The Food Bank Singapore Evolves Critical Food Distribution Program with Resources from the Sands Cares Accelerator

During its three-year membership in the Sands Cares Accelerator, which provides funding, facilitation and strategic consulting to aid community organizations in achieving greater impact, The Food Bank Singapore has set its sights on expanding and digitizing its Bank Card Program.

With a vision to achieve food security in Singapore, the organization offers the Bank Card Program to facilitate food distribution to beneficiaries, primarily students. The program offers a physical card that is pre-loaded with monthly virtual credits beneficiaries can use to redeem meals from food vendors. The current system involves the manual issuing and tracking of physical cards to enable the redemption of meals.

To improve the Bank Card Program’s efficiency, reach and overall experience for both partners and beneficiaries, the food bank is focusing on digitizing the offering as its Sands Cares Accelerator goal.

In year one of its Sands Cares Accelerator membership, The Food Bank Singapore focused on establishing technology infrastructure for the digital transition and reviewed potential technology partners to support the endeavor, as well as onboarded the selected company.

The Food Bank Singapore also began work on rebranding the Bank Card Program to provide a clearer and more compelling value proposition for donors and partners. The organization plans to launch the new Meals Forward branding with this year’s release of the Hunger Report III, a study on the state of food security in Singapore.

“The resources we have received from the Sands Cares Accelerator equipped us to achieve tremendous progress in updating our Bank Card Program,” Dr. Arthur Chin, executive director at The Food Bank Singapore, said. “Along with funding from Sands, Marina Bay Sands supported us each step of the way as we strengthened the program across technology, branding and fundraising. As we move into the next phase of relaunching the Bank Card Program, we are well positioned to ensure more low-income students can access nutritious food while pursuing their education.”

The Food Bank Singapore joined the Sands Cares Accelerator, Sands’ flagship capacity-building program for nonprofit organizations, in 2025. Nonprofit members work on a strategic program or goal over their three years in the program and receive annual funding, along with goal planning and facilitation, and consulting from Sands and its regions, to help them achieve and sustain their desired outcomes.

In year two during 2026, The Food Bank Singapore will focus on scaling partnerships with food partners to offer more extensive meal options for beneficiaries, expanding fundraising to sustain support for more students in need, as well as relaunching the program as a sustainable, data-informed solution to food insecurity.

The Sands Cares Accelerator was inspired by the entrepreneurial and philanthropic legacy of Sands’ founder Sheldon G. Adelson. Since 2017, the program has provided nine organizations in Las Vegas, Singapore and Macao with focused resources for building capacity to better serve their missions.

To learn more about the Sands Cares Accelerator and its impact on building nonprofit capacity, visit: https://www.sands.com/responsibility/communities/sands-cares-accelerator/