The Taipei City Government is working with 29 civic groups to send 1,000 sets of Lunar New Year meals to low-income families and elderly residents who live alone.
The 1,000 sets include traditional dishes with symbols of good fortune, such as fried fish fillet, turnip cake and chicken stew.
The city’s Department of Social Affairs will also give out red envelopes to those who receive the New Year meals ahead of the traditional holiday.
Photo: CNA
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday thanked 240 volunteers from the civic groups for helping to send the meals to those in need, and promised that the city would offer around-the-clock services via its 1999 Citizen Hotline during the holiday period.
“It is important for the city to give warmth and blessings to people in need, and assure them that they are not alone during the holiday period. We hope that the New Year dish delivery service will offer practical help to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, a pork bun vendor in Taipei will continue his annual tradition of holding a free outdoor banquet for homeless people from today through Monday.
Liao Rong-ji (廖榮吉) is likely to spend about NT$3.5 million (US$110,000) holding the four-day banquet next to Longshan Elementary School in Wanhua District (萬華), with 200 tables available for homeless people each day.
He said that most of the money needed to hold the banquets came from donations, and while more homeless people and low-income families come to enjoy a free meal every year, the donations have declined due to the faltering economy.
“I’ve been holding the year-end banquets since 1987 and I will try my best to continue the service to help people who live a hard life to enjoy a good meal during the New Year holiday,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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