Home Kong Kitchen
Mental Ideas has been on a roll and making serious dough! We’ve spent the past two years turning our kitchens into mini-Hiroshimas and making weekly food drives to feed Hong Kong’s homeless!
Our initiative started as a response to news reports that Breadline and other food waste charities were struggling to feed the homeless during the 3rd Wave of the pandemic. The NGO, run by the inspirational Daisy Tam, relies on food waste donations from bakeries, cafes and restaurants to deliver bread to vulnerable people living on the streets, in shelters and refuges. The restrictions meant they were struggling to meet demand at a time it had never been higher. So we decided to bake our own and help fill the gap!
As more and more bighearted Homekongers have joined our cause, Home Kong Kitchen has risen. We now bake, collect and deliver homemade breads, bagels and muffins to vulnerable people living on the streets, in unlicensed shelters and refuges most days as an independent community project!
We also collect supermarket-bought loaves generously donated by our community of supporters from their homes all over Hong Kong. Since Oct 2020, we’ve delivered bread and other gifts of clothes and blankets directly to homeless charity ImpactHK every week!
Other Hong Kong charities we have proudly supported over the past year include Bethune House Migrant Women’s Refuge, Loved Flock, Christian Action HK, the Mission For Migrant Workers and Refugee Union. In June 2021 Home Kong Kitchen was awarded a Happy Homes Award by the Mission For Migrant Workers and in 2022 we received recognition for supporting migrants through the 5th Wave.
We’ve donated our home baked breads and other goodies to an unlicensed shelter for Kenyan women migrants (pictured) after learning bread is part of their essential diet. ❤️ We’ve donated to refuges for abused domestic helpers. ❤️ We’ve donated muffins to the homeless and elderly on the streets via Christian Action HK. ❤️ We’ve donated loaves from our growing community of bread donators to Feeding Hong Kong. ❤️ We deliver bread, clothes, blankets and other practical necessities to ImpactHK every Thursday! ❤️ In Dec 2020 we made and distributed nearly 300 Christmas Gift Socks filled with tasty treats to shelters and refuges in Hong Kong. ❤️ On Feb 12 we delivered a record-breaking donation to ImpactHK! ❤️ On Feb 13 we celebrated Lunar New Year 2021 making and serving cream teas for refugees at Refugee Union. ❤️ We deliver free breakfasts to anybody who needs it in HK. ❤️ We delivered Afternoon Teas to homeless shelters and refuges on Good Friday. ❤️ We are running a Picnic Project for the homeless all summer! ❤️ We are launching our own pâtisserie where every cent we make is donated to homeless charities.
Join our Baker’s Dirty Dozens!
If you live in Hong Kong and fancy a crack at baking bread or would like to donate food, clothing or other gifts for the homeless, migrants and refugees, we’d LOVE for you to join us! Email hello@homekongkitchen.com!
Bake Zero
All our baking is wrapped in compostable bags. We have also designed and collaborated with local artists to create sustainable bread boxes out of recycled waste with doodled designs and messages of solidarity for our homeless friends! If you are an artist and would like to help, email sadie@mentalideas.org.
Art & Soul Food
We are also setting up our own bijou bakery, where you can order our homemade breads, bagels, muffins and other goodies and we deliver to your homes! We can’t promise it will be the best you’ve ever tasted, but we CAN promise every cent we make is donated to homeless charities.
Workshops & Events
We now have a baker’s studio in Kowloon Bay and have started running free baking workshops. We are also creating a beautifully illustrated cookbook raising funds for the homeless charities we support. Watch this mental space…!
Media
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