Four years ago, Ta­ichung mayor Jason Hu proposed an idea: “I want to create a food bank.” At that time many people wondered, “Isn’t that what we already have with distribution of relief goods at temples?”

Four years later, Tai­chung has become the model city for food banks in Taiwan. The Tai­chung Love Food Bank, launched by the city’s Bureau of Social Affairs and the Tai­­chung branch of the Red Cross, brings together the power of government, non-governmental charitable groups, and corporations, and provides essential assistance to the poor using a supermarket format. It has become a new model for humanitarian aid in Taiwan, and recently received a Government Service Quality Award.

A second supermarket-style food bank is already scheduled to open in Feng­yuan in September. And Taichung deputy mayor Shyu Jong-­Shyoung reveals that the Vedan Corporation, a major producer of instant noodles, intends to support a third such food bank to be established in Taichung’s coastal belt.

Since the amalgamation of Tai­chung City and Tai­chung County into a new special municipality in 2011, the area of today’s Tai­chung City is eight times that of Tai­pei City. The jurisdiction can be divided into four main zones: the mountain area, the coastal belt, the rural villages, and the urban area. Mayor Hu’s vision includes one supermarket-style food bank for each of these four zones, which would be the command and logistics centers for 11 branch banks and tens of distribution points. This network for material assistance can be seen as the “circulatory system” for “the heart of Tai­chung.”

In fact some basic infrastructure had already been laid for assistance-in-kind even before the creation of the special municipality. Tai­chung City had opened the Dadun Love Food Bank, and Tai­chung County followed suit with a program of its own called “10,000 Points of Light,” both of which involved giving out food, including rice and noodles, through distribution points.

Following the amalgamation in 2011, resources were rapidly organized and it was decided to replace the “warehouse” model with a “supermarket” model, leading to the creation of the Tai­chung Love Food Bank. The main source of donations is retailers, who provide soon-to-expire food products and household goods.

Non-governmental organizations, which had been working independently of one another, have gradually been consolidating their capabilities. For example, the ­Hsing Shih Charitable Foundation, which will open the second supermarket-style food bank in Tai­chung, has been working to organize various resources.

Hsing Shih in fact opened Tai­chung’s first food bank. ­Hsing Shih volunteer Xu Zhen­bin, who had been living in Canada and came back 12 years ago, proposed the food bank idea to the organization and then began leading ­Hsing Shih volunteers in distributing bread and soon-to-expire goods to people in need. Today, ­Hsing Shih distributes food not only in Tai­chung, but also over the border into Zhou­lan in ­Miaoli County and three townships in Nan­tou County.

Deputy mayor Shyu Jong-­Shyoung, whose professional background is in social welfare, says that while the food bank system is centered in Tai­chung, they will not refuse people in other cities and counties. “If you need something, we’ll be there to help.” Highlights of our interview with him follow:

Q: How much money does Tai­chung invest in food banks?

A: Each year the city government budgets about NT$6 million to subsidize food banks and local supply stations. There is also about NT$4–6 million in subsidies from the “deferred prosecution fund” of the district prosecutors office. When you coordinate these funds with donations from citizens, the overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts.

Q: What bureaus, besides social affairs, need to get involved with food banks?

A: We need help from the Bureau of Civil Affairs to tell us where there are marginal households that need help. Also, the police patrol everywhere, and no one knows better than they who needs assistance. The Bureau of Labor is charged with helping the unemployed, and families with school-age children in which both parents are jobless especially need help from food banks. The Bureau of Health can bring to bear their skills at inspecting food packaging, expiration, and hygiene, and also provide nutritional guidelines for reference in purchasing food.

The Bureau of Economic Development helps out by recruiting corporations to participate. For example, Vedan intends to set up a food bank in the coastal belt—they have a lot of perfectly edible products that do not pass factory inspection or are about to expire, so they have exactly the right situation for a food bank.

We already provide incentives for corporate donations. If companies give us products that have failed to pass factory inspection, we will give them a receipt for the market value. Donations to the government are 100% deductible, whereas donations to ordinary charitable foundations can be deducted only up to 10% of total revenues.

Q: Given the state of the economy, has the number of marginal households increased in recent years?

A: Based on the numbers of people picking up winter assistance at temples, there has definitely been an increase, because distributions by non-governmental charitable groups are all based on the lists of low-income and low-medium-income families kept by the government. Whenever the maximum incomes to qualify for low-income or low-medium-income status are revised upward, naturally the numbers will increase. It is a fact that there is a growing gap between the richest and the poorest in our society, so we have brought more marginalized households and new poor into the system. Assistance-in-kind can cover some of the gaps where state welfare is inadequate.

Q: Beyond the food bank system, what will be the next step in Tai­chung’s assistance-in-kind plan?

A: Another main axis will be items that are “in reserve” but “available on demand.” For example, a restaurant might provide a meal on demand, so that the needy can immediately get food right there in the community. The government’s goal is simply to set up a platform to help those in need get information about shops and stores that are willing to participate. This requires no funding—the shops and stores will absorb the costs themselves.

We are starting this program only with food, but we hope to add services as well, so that all the daily wants of the most desperately needy can be taken care of through the “in reserve, available on demand” system.

Of course some people worry that resources will be used wastefully. But we would rather have some people take too much advantage than see anyone go hungry. If because of fears of cheating the government allowed people in genuine need to go hungry, that would be a sin.

The Hsing Shih Charitable Foundation in Taichung has 12 years of experience collecting food and distributing it to the needy. In September they will open the city’s second supermarket-like food bank, providing assistance to needy families in the mountain belt of Taichung.

Offering “in reserve, available on demand” meals is an act of individual compassion, whereas food banks represent collective philanthropy. The photo shows a ramen shop that has responded to the Taichung City Government’s call to join the “on demand” program.