SINGAPORE – In a Facebook group where users donate items such as food, clothing and furniture to lower-income families, user Victor Yew’s post with a photo of a plastic storage box of rice has garnered an unusual amount of attention.

In a post on Sept 14, Mr Yew said he was giving away rice “with a lot of weevils”. Weevils are small beetles commonly found in crops.

As at Tuesday afternoon, there were 31 comments under his post, which has also been shared four times.

Facebook user Banurekha Premkumar, who commented on the post to express her objection to the item being offered or “blessed”, told The Straits Times: “Blessing is an act of kindness and I feel that it should not become an act of clearing unwanted or spoilt items in our household.

“My opinion would be that blessing items should be in good or new condition, just as how those of lower-income would expect to get from supermarkets.”

The Facebook group “(SG) Blessing of items for low income families”, where Mr Yew’s post was made, was created in April 2018 and has more than 52,000 members.

Users share photographs and descriptions of the items they want to give away and page visitors comment on the post if they wish to have them. Most posts attract fewer than 10 comments, most of which are by users expressing an interest.

One of the group’s founders, Ms Sharen Tan, said she did not remove the post, as she found the listing acceptable. In the past, she had taken down posts which offered pairs of shoes in unwearable condition and a leather sofa which was peeling.

Ms Tan, 39, said weevil-infested rice was commonplace when she was younger.

The office administrator said: “Because I was born in the 80s, I used to face this issue and we would just put the rice under the sun.

“Nowadays people look at things differently. But for me, as long as the condition of the item is stated clearly in the description, it depends on whether the receiver wants the item.”

Some commenters on Mr Yew’s post took a similar stance as Ms Tan, sharing different ways t...