Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU) today (28 November) held its fourth “Talk of the Metropolis” of the year, featuring Ms Gigi Tung Oi-lai, Founder of the Bo Charity Foundation (Food Angel), as the guest speaker. She shared her assiduous advocacy of reducing food waste and encouraging the public to donate surplus food, with the goal of further reducing food waste and enabling more people in need to be well fed and feel the care of society.
Ms Tung shared that in earlier years, she saw some photos of elderly people collecting discarded cardboard on the streets, prompting her to question why this was common in a prosperous city like Hong Kong. Realising that about 300,000 older adults in Hong Kong were living in poverty without access to healthy meals and shocked by the amount of food wasted, she was motivated to set up the Bo Charity Foundation and launch the Food Angel programme.
She highlighted that Food Angel currently redistributes about 45 tonnes of edible surplus food each week, produces over 20,000 nutritious meals, and helps distribute over 11,000 other meals and food packs daily free of charge for people in need of food assistance. The Food Angel Jockey Club Food Production Centre in Sha Tin is expected to commence operation next year, doubling daily meal production to 50,000 sets, and benefiting nearly 10 million meals per year.
Referring to the results of a survey conducted by Food Angel, in collaboration with HKMU, Ms Tung said that more than 70 per cent of the respondents had never donated surplus food, and 40 per cent had disposed of leftovers as waste, reflecting that the culture of food donation has yet to be popularised. “We will continue to promote food-wise education throughout Hong Kong and hope that large segments of society, including corporations, schools and families, will join hands to 'deliver food with love' by donating their leftovers to food recovery organisations,” she said.
HKMU Council Chairman Ir Dr Conrad Wong Tin-cheung and President Prof. Paul Lam Kwan-sing expressed their gratitude to Ms Tung for her insightful sharing. In his welcome remarks, Ir Dr Wong said that the University has been closely collaborating with Food Angel on various meaningful projects, such as encouraging students to participate in outreach activities organised by Food Angel to provide basic body check-ups and nursing care for older residents in remote areas. In addition, some students who completed their internships at Food Angel through the 'HKMU Social Impact Summer Internship Programme' proposed that the University establish a youth development programme to inspire more students to engage in social innovation. “HKMU has always been committed to nurturing students' whole person development, and we are pleased to see them actively participating in activities organised by the University and other organisations, such as Food Angel, to broaden their horizons and serve the community while pursuing knowledge,” he said.
In 2009, Ms Tung founded the Bo Charity Foundation, which is a registered charity in Hong Kong. In 2011, she launched “Food Angel”, a food rescue and food assistance programme aimed at bridging environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation by preparing free meals with surplus food it collects and redistributes to those in need.
Beyond her work in Food Angel, the Government appointed Ms Tung as a task force member of the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund. She received an Honorary University Fellowship from HKMU in 2023 in recognition of her unwavering efforts to promote philanthropy in Hong Kong.
The “Talk of the Metropolis” series aims to provide a platform for people from all walks of life to be inspired by the views of experts and scholars, thereby having a positive impact on social development. All talks in the series are broadcast on the University's “Knowledge for All” programme on Sunday mornings on TVB Pearl. To learn more about the public lecture series and watch past videos, please visit https://www.hkmu.edu.hk/pao/talk-of-the-metropolis/.
