Press Release Feb 12, 2021
Lotus Light Serves Chinese New Year Feast to the Homeless
On February 12, 2021, communities across Metro Vancouver celebrated the Lunar New Year. For Chinese New Year, this also marked the start of the Year of the Ox. In order to mark this special holiday, volunteers from Lotus Light Charity Society’s Emergency Kitchen prepared a traditional Chinese meal for vulnerable populations in the Downtown Eastside.
This year, the Chinese New Year menu featured barbecue duck, chicken, and mixed vegetables. Dessert included milk custard buns, red bean paste buns, Nanaimo bars, fortune cookies, fortune candies, and Chinese New Year golden chocolate coins.
Since 2015, Lotus Light has run a hot meals for the homeless program and has been serving Chinese meals every month in Oppenheimer Park to folks experiencing homelessness. There are always long queues for the Chinese food, and we hear that the sweet and sour pork, char siu barbecue pork, and lemon chicken are the most popular. Lotus Light has been partnering with many generous restaurants in Metro Vancouver to serve vulnerable populations in our community, and each restaurant takes turns to offer their specialties.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, food insecurity has worsened and demand for food has soared. In response, LLCS has launched the Emergency Kitchen to provide free meals twice a week, rather than only once a month. Since the kitchen’s launch in mid-2020, more than 6,000 meals have been served to folks experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable individuals in the Downtown Eastside.
“In this extraordinary time, it is imperative that we start this charity kitchen to feed the needy, to save people’s lives,” said Master Lian Tzi, President of Lotus Light Charity Society.
Lotus Light Charity Society also donated a batch of Chinese pastries on the same day to the First United Church so that the vulnerable populations that they serve could also join the Chinese New Year festivities.
As we celebrate Chinese New Year and enter the Year of the Ox, Lotus Light Charity Society and all of our volunteers would like to sincerely thank our generous corporate and individual sponsors for their financial support and in-kind donations this past year.
We would also like to express our appreciation for the support from the Emergency Community Support Fund (United Way Lower Mainland), Foodrescue.ca Emergency Fund (Second Harvest), Community Response Fund (Vancouver Foundation, VanCity Credit Union, United Way Lower Mainland, City of Vancouver), Surplus Food Rescue Program (Second Harvest), and Community Grant (Walmart Burnaby Supercentre).
We would also like to thank Superstore Grandview Highway, Superstore King George Surrey, Wholesale Club Burnaby, FoodMesh.ca, Fresh Point, Fresh Direct, Discovery Organics, Produce Terminal, Van-Whole, Ocean Brands, Wholesale Club Kingsway, Agropur, CDS Warehouse, Fine Choice Foods, Chens Distribution, Chefs Warehouse, Gordon Food Service, Grace Foods, and other corporate sponsors and partner organizations.
