In response to the raging fifth wave of COVID in Hong Kong, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints donated more than 2.5 tons of food on March 25, 2022 to the underprivileged in the city through Foodlink Foundation. The volume was sufficient to provide 6,000 meals to benefit the community.
“This donation does not only provide emergency food relief to the desperate communities, but also injects positive energy to support the needy of riding out this trying times,” said Foodlink Head of Operation Aurea Yung.
The tightened COVID regulation in HK during the fifth wave has impacted livelihood in every way. The city that was once prosperous now has an unemployment rate increasing at an alarming percentage; many are struggling to make ends meet. Yung said their foundation recently received more urgent calls than ever before, crying for help, so she was very thankful for the Church’s generous and timely contribution.
Mickey Lui, the Church’s welfare and self-reliance manager for Asia, said it was not easy to order food for delivery this time, because the outbreak of COVID has led to a lack of drivers and logistics workers. Besides, canned food supply was also in shortage as the HK government was conducting bulk purchases for their isolation facilities.
“But knowing how much the community needed help, our colleagues worked tirelessly to find food suppliers that had the stock and could arrange the delivery,” he said. “We were able to make it happen because of the collective effort.”
While the Church donated noodles and various kinds of canned food to Foodlink, other organizations gave them rice, masks and test kits to give out.
“Although these organizations came to us separately, together, their synergized contribution made all the difference for the community,” Yung said.
This is not the first time the Church partnered with Foodlink for service projects. Click links below to see details of their past cooperation: