Mid-Autumn Festival is one of Hong Kong's most celebrated holidays. Many people were more willing to celebrate the festival this year even our lives are still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the over-the-head mooncake promotion campaign and advertisements and an overwhelming variety of flavours of mooncakes of all kinds to choose from these days. In addition, a variety of Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake early bird discounts were launched to attract people to buy more mooncakes. FRRC launched the annual mooncake recycling program three weeks before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and related measurements, promotional booths and activities were not feasible to be held like 2019, unfortunately. Instead, FRRC shared a series of Green Mid-Autumn Festival tips online to encourage everyone to purchase just the right amount of mooncakes to potentially lighten the "surplus mooncake mountain" aftermath. Apart from FRRC in Lei Muk Shue, five organizations joined the mooncake recovery program this year to collect surplus mooncakes in their organizations.
We have learnt from our past two years of experience to encourages the organizations and citizens to collect and donate the mooncakes before Mid-Autumn to share and distribute the mooncakes with people in need in time. FRRC recovered nearly 5,000 pieces of mooncakes in total, which is a drastic increase compares with last year’s 1,000 pieces. It was close to the recovered amount of more than 5,000 pieces of mooncakes in 2019 before the epidemic. In 2019, 70% of the mooncakes was received after the Mid-Autumn Festival while 80% was recovered before the Mid-Autumn Festival this year. With the increased awareness on “food-wise”, people were willing to assess whether there would be excess mooncakes early at home and took the initiative to send the mooncakes to FRRC for people in need in the community before the Mid-autumn festival. I want to thank the organizations and citizens who have participated in mooncake recycling for supporting us in the community. In addition to the mooncakes being distributed to the registered beneficiaries of FRRC, we distributed more than 2,800 mooncakes to two District Council offices, the social welfare organization and the Rehabilitation & Healthcare Home. Through these organizations, we donate mooncakes to more people in need and help the community. More people are sharing the joy of the holiday.
FRRC received more than 800 mooncakes after the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even after the end of the mooncake recovery program, FRRC still received many inquiries about the mooncakes recovery. Perhaps the strong festive sense has placed an unspoken “time limit” on the mooncakes, as once the festival is over, they are no longer desired and ended up at the recycling centre. We sincerely encourage manufacturers, retailers and the general public to take the initiative and responsibility to properly handle potential surplus food items at the earliest convenience in future festivals.
In the end, the “surplus mooncake mountain” shouldn’t appear again in FRRC and other food recycling centers in the future. The essence of the Mid-Autumn Festival traditions should lie in our soul and heart where families and friends gather to revel in festivities about feasting on mooncakes, moon gazing with gratitude and appreciating the value of food. Compared with fancy mooncakes, fruits, red pockets or cash vouchers are environmentally friendly & sustainable options. FRRC will continue to work hand-in-hand in building the culture of cherishing our food together!
