Five welfare groups chosen by the government to provide food assistance were overwhelmed on the first day of the operation yesterday.
They received hundreds of applications and inquiries from families on low incomes and those hit by the financial crisis.
Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, which runs three centres and 22 delivery points in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon City and Tsim Sha Tsui, handled 104 cases and approved 67, involving 103 people. They will receive food assistance, such as rice, packet noodles and canned food, for up to six weeks.
Mariana Wong Man-fong, district co-ordinator of the group, said they had far more applicants than they expected.
'We originally planned to serve 1,000 people over the coming months. Yet it appears that we will have to stock more food to deal with the demand,' she said.
A typical case, Ms Wong said, was a middle-aged truck driver who had lost his job recently.
