Meet the Cathay Pacific pilots raising money to buy rice for charity Feeding Hong Kong
- Australians Glen Clarke and Matthew Brockman kicked off a crowdfunding campaign to raise HK$10,000 for charity that rescues edible food and redistributes it
- A staple in Hong Kong, rice is almost never donated to charity because it does not expire and shops rarely discard it
Two Cathay Pacific pilots are on the run – a rice run.
After raising the same amount for two Australian foundations in 2017 and 2018, Clarke and Brockman decided it was time to give back to Hong Kong. Both men moved to the city for work four years ago.
“I wanted to support the community that gives my wife and me the life we live here. We wouldn’t have found the same opportunities back home,” says Clarke, 33.
Brockman, 30, agrees. “I started to think more about charitable work when I came to Hong Kong and realised how well we’ve got it. I feel like I’ve got a moral obligation to help some of the people who haven’t had the opportunities we’ve had.”
In 2017, Hong Kong sent more than 3,600 tonnes of food waste to landfills every day – but not all of it was inedible.
According to Feeding Hong Kong, supermarkets and wet markets discard 43 tonnes of edible food every day.
To support the charity’s work of giving food to those who need it most, Rice Run 2019 raised more than double their HK$10,000 target in less than three weeks.
“We didn’t expect it,” says Brockman. “A lot of it came from colleagues, friends and family back in Australia.”
Clarke and Brockman will buy and deliver 200 bags of rice, each weighing 5kg, to the charity, but are undecided on where to allocate the remaining funds.
The duo became inspired to raise funds to purchase rice while sorting donated goods at the Feeding Hong Kong warehouse in Yau Tong.
Although they found non-perishable items such as cup noodles, they noticed a lack of rice – a staple in Hong Kong.
Helping out at the warehouse is always going to be time well spent. It’s better than watching TV or doing something unproductive
“We were told rice is almost never donated because it doesn’t really expire and because so many people eat it, it sells out at shops,” Brockman says.
Last August, Clarke started going on bread runs for the charity.
A couple of times a month, he would make several stops at local retailers who signed up for Feeding Hong Kong’s programme, collected leftover bread and delivered it to the Feeding Hong Kong warehouse.
Although he sometimes returns empty-handed, Clarke says it is still more effective to drop by the shops than to call in advance.
“I’ve tried ringing the retailers up to ask if they have leftovers, but they either don’t pick up the phone, or when they do, they don’t speak English well enough to understand me.”
Brockman, meanwhile, has yet to successfully acquire leftovers on his bread runs.
“I never feel bad about it. Helping out at the warehouse, on bread runs and through the fundraiser is always going to be time well spent. It’s better than watching TV or doing something unproductive.”
Even before their campaign for Feeding Hong Kong closes in June, Clarke and Brockman are already thinking of more ways to give back to the community and say a beach or trail clean-up could be next.
