To address poverty issues that are of major public concern and have greater social impact, the SIE Fund Task Force is looking for areas of unmet demands and service gaps where there is a need for greater co-ordination and collaboration to achieve result. In this regard, the Task Force has shown concern for food support service in Hong Kong.

Having regard that the food support service sector as a whole is facing challenges, such as lack of information, unmatched supply and demand, as well as high running cost, the Task Force has decided to take on a flagship project which aims at enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the overall food support service in Hong Kong.

The SIE Fund engaged St. James' Settlement (SJS) as the intermediary in 2016 to launch its first flagship project in capacity building to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of food support services in Hong Kong. SJS is responsible for designing, building and operating an inclusive platform for different stakeholders of the sector, including food donors and food support service operators, to coordinate information sharing on the demand and supply of food items and related services.

During the first year of intermediary engagement, SJS commissioned a territory-wide study to better understand the whole food support service sector. (click here for the executive summary of the baseline study)

Making use of information technology and data analysis, FOOD-CO is the first all-dimensional collaborative platform in Hong Kong to connect food support service operators, food donors, supporting organisations and volunteers to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the food support service. FOOD-CO first went on trial in Kwai Tsing, Kwun Tong and Yuen Long in May 2017 (click here for related press release). SJS commissioned a social impact assessment for the pilot run of FOOD-CO to understand and analyse the impact of FOOD-CO during the six-month pilot run. The result shows that the target outcome indicators are all overachieved in the three pilot districts (more details can be found in the executive summary of the social impact assessment for pilot run of FOOD-CO and the press release).

Since November 2017, FOOD-CO has expanded to cover all 18 districts across Hong Kong. In 2018, SJS commissioned another social impact assessment for the full scale implementation of FOOD-CO. When comparing the findings with those from baseline survey, all four outcome targets had been overshot (more details can be found in the executive summary of the social impact assessment for the full scale implementation of FOOD-CO). Details as follows:

^{* Data adopted from the baseline study conducted by Social Policy Research Limited in 2016
# Figures adopted from the Social Impact Assessment on FOOD-CO conducted by Social Policy Research Limited in 2018}

Operators can share the best practices and better coordinate their operations through this platform. Donors can also reach out to suitable operators for more efficient food donations. Members of the public and people in need can better understand different food support services in their own districts. Public awareness programmes are also held to let people know more about food support services in Hong Kong.