It’s lunch time and the click-clack of chopsticks is the one sound on this sunlit group middle in Kowloon, Hong Kong. About 30 grey-haired diners sit at small tables, dipping into steaming bowls of rice, pork stomach, leafy greens and lotus root soup.  

Au Shu Kei, 88, sporting a flannel shirt, denim jacket and surgical masks, walked right here from his condominium 10 minutes away. A retired lodge shuttle bus driver, he comes 5 days every week for lunch. 

Does he have a favourite dish? “I’m not a choosy eater,” he says, “so long as it’s wholesome meals.” He provides: “The service right here is sweet.” 

How this meal occurred is an element logistical acrobatics, half every day miracle – with some assist from expertise. 

Orchestrated by an NGO aptly named Meals Angel, it includes a military of meals collectors fanning out to markets, eating places, accommodations and groceries throughout Hong Kong to select up surplus meals that will in any other case be thrown away as a result of it’s a little bit wilted or bruised or just uneaten. They acquire 45 metric tons every week; greater than half from ParknShop, a grocery chain owned by listed conglomerate CK Hutchison Group. Different donors embrace airline Cathay Pacific and luxurious lodge The Peninsula Hong Kong. 

Racing towards time – and expiration dates – Meals Angel turns this rescued bounty into 20,000 scorching and chilled meals every day and helps ship 11,000 different meals and meals packs by means of a community of charities and merchandising machines, in addition to residence supply to a few of Hong Kong’s poorest neighborhoods. 

“Mainly, we rescue meals which continues to be edible, following strict meals security protocol, and flip them into meals for the needy group freed from cost,” mentioned Zoe Lee, Meals Angel’s Chief Technique Officer. Not too long ago, the NGO’s work has been pushed by expertise together with Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Subject Service and Enterprise Central software program and Energy Apps, hosted on Azure. 

Hong Kong is a monetary hub and culinary capital. It’s additionally a spot the place a major underclass – many aged – wrestle simply to place meals on the desk. Hong Kong tops the world in longevity, surpassing even Japan. 

The aged inhabitants reached 1.3 million in 2020, accounting for one-fifth of the entire inhabitants, in keeping with the Hong Kong Poverty Scenario Report printed by the federal government. 45 % of the aged – or 583,600 – had been recognized as poor earlier than any authorities help. 

As one of many world’s most densely populated cities, Hong Kong additionally has a large waste drawback: its three working landfills are near full. Hong Kong’s Environmental Safety Division estimates that 30% of the ten,809 metric tons of municipal waste dumped into landfills every day comes from meals. For the previous couple of years, the federal government has been actively selling meals donation, recycling and composting. 

All these components make the case for meals rescue right here significantly compelling. 

Meals Angel was launched in 2011 by Bo Charity Basis, an NGO based by Gigi Tung, a former kids’s health club entrepreneur. Years in the past, Tung witnessed a typical avenue scene that for her threw in sharp aid Hong Kong’s wealth hole. 

“In an space with luxurious shops, I noticed a granny wrestle to push a cart piled with cardboard up a slope,” she instructed an interviewer on Hong Kong Cable TV in 2012. “This confirmed the inequality of society. I thought of methods I may assist her. Essentially the most direct one was to supply her with meals.”  

Tung coined the slogan “Waste Not, Starvation Not, With Love.” When the pandemic hit, waste and starvation each shot up, and extra folks wanted Meals Angel’s model of affection. 

Immediately, the group produces double the variety of scorching and chilled meals – 20,000 a day – as earlier than the pandemic.  

As Meals Angel grew, so did the complexity of its work. Up till two years in the past, it relied on a hodgepodge of cellular messaging, pen on paper and a number of spreadsheets to function. 

It was messy. There was no solution to know what or how a lot had been collected till drivers arrived again on the warehouse after their rounds. Meals collectors and drivers generally missed one another by minutes at assortment factors, with nobody the wiser till hours later.  

Two years in the past, as demand for companies jumped, Meals Angel started working with a tech marketing consultant to determine a greater manner. “Meals Angel’s operation is sort of distinctive,” mentioned Kenny Zee, the NGO’s head of IT. “We couldn’t discover any ready-made system that fulfilled our enterprise necessities.”  

The crew ended up customizing an answer utilizing Microsoft expertise. Dynamics 365 Subject Service is used to handle logistics and is built-in into an app the crew constructed utilizing Energy Apps, a Microsoft instrument that permits folks with out in depth coding information to create their very own apps. Drivers now are assigned routes by way of a cellular app, which incorporates info equivalent to what measurement automobile can squeeze into a group spot and whether or not there’s a ramp accessible. Drivers faucet in what they’ve picked up and the way a lot at every assortment level.