Established in 2017 with the Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund, Festyle is a social enterprise that provides delivery of nutritional grocery and cuisine packages prepared by housewives or retired women. It aims to promote home-cooking and healthy food culture while freeing up the labour value of family caregivers through providing job opportunities. It empowers women by providing them with employment opportunities that utilise their talents and experiences.
The Challenges
Hong Kong is a city that embraces severe overworking. According to the statistics, despite the slight decline in the median weekly working hours of local employees in Hong Kong, the working time is still considered high worldwide, while low-skilled workers are more vulnerable to long working hours (Legislative Council, 2019). As a result, they may not have the time to buy fresh food to cook for themselves. Also, surveys have shown that the working class often eat out at fast food chains, which means their meals often contain little vegetables and high amount of sodium (HK01, 2018). Therefore, Hong Kong people may be more vulnerable to associated health problems and risks like cardiovascular diseases and obesity due to the unhealthy eating habits
The Solution
Festyle aims to provide nutritional grocery and cuisine package deliveries by recruiting housewives or retired women to select and purchase fresh food from wet markets and then process the food into convenient meal packages for customers. They also design new seasonal recipes and packages as well as manage and develop the businesses of Festyle. Moreover, cooking tips and procedures are included in the packages to assist and encourage non-experienced customers to cook for themselves. Customers can order online every day before 1 pm and receive same-day deliveries at the selected timeslot. Festyle can also cater to special dietary needs. Also, in order to contribute to the sustainable development in Hong Kong, Festyl allocates some of its profits to the empowerment of women and the development of the enterprise, so the company can keep developing. In the future, Festyle will try collaborating with restaurants to share the kitchen during non-peak hours to utilise resources and inviting experts from different areas as consultants for operation to further develop the company.
The Impact
Since its launch, Festyle has offered trainings and flexible working opportunities to about 20 women, created over 1,600 recipes, provided healthy home-cooked food boxes for over 3,000 families, and provided more than 13,000 hours of job opportunity for its employees. So Festyle has been successful in empowering women and promoting a healthy cooking culture. Festyle’s cause has earned itself recognition in Hong Kong. For example, Festyle won the 2015 Hong Kong Social Enterprise Challenge in the categories of community and minority integration, as well as the grant by Good Seed in 2016, for their innovative approach to solve the need of healthy food in families.
Reference
Festyle. [Online]. https://www.festyle.hk/. HK01. (2018, May 9).
“Few choices dining out, we should be more determined in promoting healthy restaurants.” (外出用膳選擇少 推動健康食肆應更有決心). https://bit.ly/2UNIk0w. Accessed 24 January 2021.
Hong Kong Economic Journal. (2020). “Social Enterprise by Women, Cooking with warmth and innovativeness.” (婦女社會企業 煮出溫暖新意).
https://02f0433a-2a58-4df8-8e78-10af4a8a8eab.filesusr.com/ugd/3e7c77_c9b83c71ed794965a34a6df03fa2e0fc.pdf Accessed 24 January 2021.
Working Hours in Hong Kong. (2019, November). The Legislative Council of the HKSAR. https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/english/1920issh06-working-hours-in-hong-kong-20191108-e.pdf. Accessed 24 January 2021.
