How one Hong Kong restauranteur-turned-Good Samaritan is thinking outside the lunchbox
Sham Shui Po restauranteur Ming Gor – who has made a name for helping the neighbourhood’s needy – on food, his Lan Kwai Fong fundraiser, and what the city needs to help those left behind
Sham Shui Po’s culinary Good Samaritan, Chan Cheuk-ming, also known as “Ming Gor” around the neighbourhood, is fundraising in Central for his plan to distribute over 40,000 free meals next year to poor people in the city. The owner of Pei Ho Barbecue Restaurant has become a local charity icon for his efforts to feed the homeless, and single old people, in his community. But with rent soaring recently, Chan’s restaurant was forced out of business earlier this year. But good-hearted neighbours helped him out.
After Chan got back in business only a few months ago, he decided to launch a fundraising event in Lan Kwai Fong where he will sell 300 lunchboxes in a pop-up shop every day from November 17 to December 15. Chan’s shop, in front of 1 Lan Kwai Fong, sells each lunchbox for HK$32 with HK$4 going to Chan’s Pei Ho Foundation. On the first day of his campaign, all 300 lunchboxes sold out within an hour. Supporters can also donate to the fund by buying a voucher in a 7-Eleven for HK$24, which will cover a meal for one of Chan’s beneficiaries.
How did you start doing charity work as a restaurant owner?
I started working in the kitchen when I was just in grade school on the mainland. Shortly after I arrived in the city in 1979, I started working at a restaurant in Sham Shui Po. And I have been in the neighbourhood ever since. Then I started working at Pei Ho Barbecue Restaurant in 1983. Later everyone else left and I became the only person who manages the restaurant. Then I slowly realised that I struggled to make a profit although I have been in business for so long. And the reason is that I have too soft a heart. Whenever I got some stocks in, I always want to sell them cheap to the neighbours so that they could also afford a good meal. So in 2008, we partnered with the Society for Community Organisation to create meal coupons for the poor. Each meal was priced at HK$22. A big company sponsored HK$15 and we sponsored HK$2. So we earned a profit of about HK$5. It started as a way to attract more business but then it became the first step into what I do now.
Many Hongkongers applauded your efforts to keep your meal boxes as cheap as possible. Can you tell us about that struggle?