Donate Your Lai See To Fight Poverty With Oxfam This Lunar New Year

Support Oxfam’s One More Dish initiative and help low-income families celebrate LNY with a better meal…

When we hear Lunar New Year, we think of sweet boxes filled with sugary confections, pounds upon pounds of New Year cake, bowls overflowing with mandarin oranges and lavish banquet dinners. But for a lot of families out there, this is not the reality. With unemployment rates reaching historic highs and the pandemic pushing up food prices, many low-income families are struggling to make ends meet.

To help these struggling families, Oxfam Hong Kong is encouraging the public to support its Lunar New Year initiative, “One More Dish”, by donating their lai see this month. With the help of your donations, you will be supporting Oxfam’s development programmes and one of their local programmes, Give A Meal. Through this initiative, Oxfam will be sending extra meal kits and ingredients (such as dried shiitake mushrooms, a staple during Lunar New Year) to families in need so that they can celebrate the new year with a better meal.

Oxfam has been handing out meal kits since last spring to people like Cecilia, who is a full-time mum that lives in a 100-odd square-foot subdivided flat with her husband and two kids. Due to the pandemic, her husband’s monthly income has been reduced by more than 50% and the family has had to cut down on their food expenses, among other things.

“The meal kits have helped us save a bit of money. We can eat a lot better on the days we receive the kits,” Cecilia said. The kits not only ensure these families get nutritious meals, but also empowers them with information from a dietitian about nutrition and tips on what healthy foods they can buy on a budget.

Each meal is designed and recommended by a dietitian to ensure that the 300 families involved in the programme, that are living in subdivided flats with their children, will receive nutritious (and delicious!) meals throughout the year. What’s more, part-time jobs were created for low-income women to help prepare the kits. Lunar New Year is a time of joy and sharing; with the holiday right around the corner, what better time to do your part to help struggling communities?

Oxfam Hong Kong, 17/F, China United Centre, 28 Marble Road, North Point, Hong Kong, 3120 5000, [email protected], www.oxfam.org.hk, www.facebook.com/oxfamhongkong