“I find my volunteer work meaningful,” said Lam, who joined the team in 2020.

The service, which began in late 2019, is part of Gingko House, a social enterprise restaurant group known for employing elderly residents.

With support from donors, the chain distributes about 1,000 free meals across the city each day to the underprivileged, such as senior residents living in subdivided flats and the homeless.

The Rice Box team, which comprises Gingko House staff and volunteers, prepares and packages the meals on site and gives them to the beneficiaries queuing at the restaurant’s different locations before and after peak service hours.

Ray Tam Kin-fai, who has helped to develop and coordinate the service, said there was a constant demand for the free meals and his colleagues attached great importance to streamlining the logistics of the whole operation.

“There could be hundreds of people using our free hot meal service at a location so we have to manage their wait times and stagger the start,” he said. “We advise elderly service users to come later lest they should queue up for too long.”

People who have signed up for the service are given a user card and assured that a free meal is ready for their collection every day.

Tam said his team still verified user identities manually, but the vetting process was undergoing a digital makeover.

“In the future, service users can just tap their own contactless cards to collect the meal boxes,” he said. “It works like an Octopus card.”

With the digital system in place, according to Tam, the team might collect user statistics and develop tailored services, such as the provision of food alternatives for vegetarians and older adults having trouble swallowing.

“We could be prompted to give users of the service a surprise on their birthdays,” he added.

The team believes an efficient user system goes hand in hand with a better service.

Kenneth Choi Man-kin, Gingko House’s director of business development, said his Rice Box teammates would be able to check more quickly via the new system whether any users of the service had failed to show up and determine whether any follow-up actions were required.

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Amid Hong Kong’s fifth and worst Covid-19 wave to date, the team launched a range of community support services in an effort to meet the pressing needs of elderly residents.

“We are trying to fill the gap in public services,” Choi said.

Their efforts earned the team a nomination at this year’s Spirit of Hong Kong Awards.

The annual event, co-organised by the South China Morning Post and property developer Sino Group, celebrates the achievements of remarkable people whose work may otherwise go unnoticed.

Joyce Mak of Everbright Concern Action Limited recommended Gingko House’s Love Project Rice Box team for the Spirit of Teamwork award, which recognises corporations and groups embracing their role as socially responsible corporate citizens and giving back to society.

Choi said his team sought to provide timely support for the elderly as they faced a high risk of contracting the coronavirus.

Apart from helping them develop an awareness of hygiene, the group ran a phone check-in programme to connect elderly residents with volunteers.

Armed with commercial mist sprayers and food-grade disinfectants, Choi and his teammates also helped low-income seniors and disadvantaged families to keep their homes clean.