Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and related measurements, this years’ Mid-Autumn Festival felt different. Less over-the-head mooncake promotion campaign and advertisements; general public were also more aware of their consumption under the adverse economic condition in such pandemic.
FRRC launched the annual mooncake recycling program through sharing a series of Green Mid-Autumn Festival tips. We hope to encourage everyone to purchase just the right amount of mooncakes, to potentially lighten the “surplus mooncake mountain” aftermath. Our collection points were set at FRRC in Lei Muk Shue and 4 organizations joined our program this year to collect surplus mooncakes in their organizations. Yet, under this pandemic, promotional booth and activity were not feasible to be hold like previous years unfortunately, which reduce the reach and participant number.
We have learnt from our past experience to set the recovery deadline before Mid-Autumn, in order to share and distribute the mooncakes with people in need in time. FRRC recovered more than 1,000 pieces of mooncakes in total, which is a drastic decrease compares with last year’s 5,000 pieces. 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, Mid-Autumn Festival should be about spending quality time with beloved friends and families, fancy mooncakes and excessive gifts are not the essence of the festival. We truly believe if we can appreciate the value of food and work together hand-in-hand, the “surplus mooncake mountain” shouldn’t appear again in FRRC and other food recycling centers in the future.
