1. Surplus food recovery summary & updates
CA’s food sharing scheme, the Food Resources Recycling Centre (FRRC), was established in July 2013 and sponsored by the Environment and Conservation Fund since August 2014. We aim to encourage more people to participate in food waste reduction and give back to the community through mutual help and sharing! As of the end of March 2018, 212 tons of fresh and packaged food has been recovered by FRRC, which benefited over 100,000 people.
In 24th March 2018, students from Tung Wah College’s School of Nursing organized a Food and Health seminar for food receivers from Lei Muk Shue estate. It was FRRC’s first collaboration with other organizations and the feedbacks seemed quite positive. We hope to explore more collaboration opportunities regarding the food sharing scheme in the near future.
2. Chinese New Year surplus food donation activity
The CNY surplus food donation activity has completed successfully and the food products gathered were all redistributed to grass-root families in the community. Thanks for all your support!
Being one of the most important Chinese festivals, many traditional customs like reunion dinner, spring dinner, New Year cakes, candies and lucky foods are all related to “eating”. However, traditional customs such as “gift-giving” may sometimes lead to “over-purchase” and the generation of food waste. Thus, FRRC had organized the CNY surplus food donation activity during 12th February to 16th March to share festival blessings by mitigating resources mismatch and promoting the “food-wise” message.
Many friends and companies have donated the surplus New Year cakes, candies and gift boxes for the activity. We also recovered nearly 1,700kg of surplus fruits from a local charity. Moreover, many mainstream media also took the initiative in promoting the food-wise messages throughout the festive periods.
Even though the response was average compared to the moon-cakes recovery activity earlier in the year, it was actually good news for the surplus food recovery community. The quantity of food recovered among different groups reminds us of our over-reliance on recycling to reduce food waste across the commercial, industrials and domestic sectors. Nevertheless, the ultimate solution to the problem has always been the source reduction of waste.
