A ceremony for the opening of a communal food pantry is to be held tomorrow at Taipei’s Bopiliao Historical Street in Wanhua District (萬華), hosted by the charity group Do You a Flavor.
A food pantry in Bopiliao is the first of 100 pantries that the charity plans open in the city. The opening of a second pantry in Zao Ka Studio near the National Taipei University of Education is to be announced late next month, the charity said.
The second pantry is to have a public kitchen.
Photo courtesy of Do you a Flavor
A communal food pantry is a place where people can donate food for those in need.
In Germany, the Lebensmittelretter Association has more than 100 food pantries — half of which have refrigerators for perishables — and all have staple, non-perishable foods.
“In Taiwan, an average of 100kg of food is wasted per person per year,” Do You a Flavor founder Chu Kuan-chen (朱冠蓁) said.
“It is has been reported that no one knows what happens to the food waste from supermarkets. If we can redistribute leftovers, not only do we save food from being thrown away, but we can also help others through the sharing food program,” she said.
Wanhua was selected as the first location for the program because the district’s many temples are given traditional foods, such as noodles and flatbread, and the charity wants to offer traditional meals, Chu said.
People donate rice and other food items to temples or Buddhist monasteries as offerings to deities on temple festival days. During the festivities, some of the food is cooked to share with templegoers and after the event the remaining uncooked food is distributed to those in need, Chu said.
The charity hopes to have potluck events involving communal food preparation with local residents, she said.
To ensure food hygiene safety, the communal pantries are to implement a membership system whereby first-time contributors provide basic personal information and the expiry date of food offered so that items can be tracked, Chu said.
The pantries do not accept fresh meat, cooked food, alcoholic beverages or expired items, she said.
Do You a Flavor is looking for potential locations in Taipei for pantries in areas such as the historical quarter of Dadaocheng (大稻埕), with the long-term aim of having pantries across the city, the charity said.
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