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It's New Year again, a time of joyous shopping and dining. Come and show your support for social enterprises (SEs) at FarmFest or click on a newly launched online platform to patronise an SE restaurant that you prefer to make your time more meaningful.
The Home Affairs Department (HAD) promotes SEs through various channels and different platforms that show the public their quality products and services as well as their social missions. Six SEs funded by the HAD's Enhancing Self-Reliance Through District Partnership (ESR) Programme will showcase products at FarmFest 2016 to be held from January 7 to 10. They include organic and healthy food and eco-friendly products, which are perfect for New Year gatherings for family and friends. FarmFest will be held in Fa Hui Park, Mong Kok, from 10am to 8pm. Admission is free. Members of the public are welcome to patronise the SE booths and those who have purchased up to a certain amount will receive a fine souvenir for free on a first-come, first-served basis. Please refer to the Annex for more details.
As a good number of SEs are running catering-related businesses, the HAD, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Council of Social Service-HSBC Social Enterprise Business Centre and OpenRice, a popular online restaurant searching platform, is embarking on a promotion campaign for the SE restaurants.
Members of the public can now easily access their favourite SE restaurants through this online restaurant searching platform. They can look for information on about 80 SE restaurants by selecting the search criterion of "SE restaurant" under the "restaurant" type to visit the SE theme page. Four Chinese characters "ªÀ·|¥ø·~" will be displayed next to the names of the SE restaurants for easy identification. Messages on SE missions and the latest promotional activities will also be provided on the SE theme page.
A spokesman for the HAD said, "SEs need to achieve their double bottom lines. Apart from pursuing their social objectives, for example, to create jobs for the underprivileged, encourage self-reliance, etc, SEs have to sustain their business run on commercial mode. With the public's increasing awareness of SEs and recognition of their missions, promoting SEs via different online platforms aims to provide more easily accessible information on SEs for the public to learn more about the quality and variety of their products and services so as to encourage more people to patronise SEs."
For more information about SEs and the ESR Programme, please visit www.social-enterprises.gov.hk and www.had.gov.hk/esr; or www.openrice.com/SocialEnterprises for details on SE restaurants.
Ends/Friday, January 1, 2016
Issued at HKT 14:00
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