Food banks get HK$1m to help poor
The Social Welfare Department will allocate more than HK$1 million in immediate relief to those too poor to feed themselves, department director Stephen Fisher said yesterday.
This interim plan is intended to help food banks stock up before the government requests HK$100 million for additional short-term food assistance from lawmakers in October when the new Legislative Council session begins.
The HK$100 million package was one of 10 measures unveiled by Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen last week in response to rising inflation in the city. Other measures include a utilities bill subsidy and extra payments to welfare recipients.
Mr Fisher said: 'We hope to immediately give some funds to organisations currently operating food banks ... to allow them to expand on what they're already doing so that those in need can get help immediately.'
He said this would benefit both welfare recipients and those in dire economic need.
Connie Ng Man-yin, supervisor of the People's Food Bank of St James' Settlement, welcomed the move.
'This will solve our current problem. All along we have been facing inflation and high food prices, which have been putting pressure on us.'
Ms Ng said wholesale food prices had risen 30 to 40 per cent this year, putting pressure on the food bank's resources.
Mr Fisher said he would ask food banks to set up food stations in various districts, especially those with a large proportion of low-income families, such as Sham Shui Po, Tin Shui Wai, Kwun Tong and Tung Chung, to provide easy access to those in need.
He said Hong Kong's welfare system was meant to provide people with food and shelter, but reviews of the welfare budget were only held every five years and, in the event of inflation, there was a time lag before extra benefits kicked in. That was why an interim payment had been made.
The last welfare review conducted in 2004-05 found that welfare recipients spent 37 per cent of their payments on food. Mr Fisher said if a study next year revealed a higher proportion of spending on food, the department would rethink the issue.
