Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation

In Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, Tzu Chi volunteers are preparing more than 1,000 vegetarian lunch boxes every day for the workers building a new village. The foundation is funding construction of a ‘Great Love’ village in the Shanlin district, in a suburb of the city, for victims of Typhoon Morakot, which struck southern Taiwan in early August last year. Staff from four construction companies are at work on the site and need 1,200 lunch boxes every day. The foundation is keen to encourage them to eat vegetarian food and has mobilized more than 100 volunteers, many of them elderly, in this effort.

They prepare the food in two Tzu Chi centres, one in Qishan, close to the site, and the other in the centre of Kaohsiung, a 30-minute drive away. It is hard to make vegetarian lunchboxes with different varieties every day. “They work hard at the site, so we add extra food for the brothers,” said volunteer Chen Qiuju. Her colleague Liu Zaihe said that they put their hearts into the cooking.

Initially, only the volunteers at Qishan were responsible for the lunches. Then the number of workers demanding a vegetarian menu increased to 1,200 and the volunteers at Kaohsiung joined in. Some elderly people from Shanlin came in to help. One of them is Chen Meiyao: “After the August disaster, my uncle passed away and my aunt is at home by herself, so I brought her here.” Another, Zhong Qinqiu, said that the centre was short of people, so she had come to help.

After they prepare the food, the elderly volunteers catch the bus together to deliver it to the workers. They hope that a full stomach will enable the workers to finish the job quickly, so that the victims of the disaster can move in soon.

Source: Da Ai News