Chinese New Year is a time of gift giving, especially food gifts to relatives. Do you have a lot of food gifts received from relatives and friends left over after Lunar New Year Holidays? You can share the joy and blessing with the underprivileged families by donating your CNY gifts to the People’s Food Bank. Please Act Now!
Donation Period: Now until 10/3/2016
Donation Detail: Donated food should be in an intact package with a shelf-life longer than 8 weeks
Collection Points: St. James’ Settlement District Offices
1. St. James’ Settlement Headquarters, Room 902, 9/F, 85 Stone Nullah Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
2. Sai On Centre, Shop 1-3, G/F, Fortune Court, 10 Sai On Lane, Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong
3. Kindness Centre, Shop 1-3, G/F, Man Hing House, Tai Hang Sai Estate, Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon
4. Kowloon Kindness Centre, G/F, Konwall Court, 143 Lai Chi Kok Road, Kowloon
5. Kwai Chung Kindness Centre, LG/F, Shek Foon House, Shek Lei(II) Estate, Kwai Chung ,N.T.
About the People’s Food Bank: The office of the People’s Food Bank is located at Sai On Centre, Sai Ying Pun. It was originally a relief centre for street sleepers. It went into operation on 24 March 1997 and is still providing services for street sleepers on Hong Kong Island today.
All along, the centre has been providing food for street sleepers and emergency food supplies for the poor to relieve their hunger. After the financial crisis of 1998, the issue of poverty worsened in Hong Kong. A UN report on human development pointed out that in terms of the gap between the rich and the poor, Hong Kong ranked number 3 in developed areas of the whole world and number 1 in developed areas of Asia. The SAR Government reduced the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) for the first time in June 1999. This caused further hardship to those who relied on the SAR Government for their livelihood. With the economic downturn and high rate of unemployment, the number of street sleepers shot up. The number of referrals to this centre for food assistance continued to increase.
In November 2002, with the help of Food Link, the centre obtained leftovers from a hotel. The food collected, combined with vegetables, provided food for the stomachs of 12 people on average every day. In 2003 when SARS was ravaging the territory, the hotel stopped the supply of food. The free food service offered by the centre was temporarily suspended. Fortunately, a donation made by a Mr Li meant that the service could be relaunched. The daily quota for meal service increased from 12 to 24. Thereafter, the number of people asking for food assistance kept on increasing. As a result, St. James’ Settlement formally established the People’s Food Bank on 13 December 2003, providing the poor with temporary free food assistance.
The People’s Food Bank only receives a small amount of subsidies from the SAR Government. Most of the food, money, tools and equipment are donated by benefactors. The People’s Food Bank main task is the collection of food and monetary donations. Their partner agencies in various districts in turn deliver the food to the poor.
Their Mission: The People’s Food Bank’s mission is to provide food to people in need on a short-term and weekly basis, relieve hunger and to promote social cohesion through encouraging people to share resources with those less fortunate than themselves.
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