Hong Kong refugees deserve basic right to decide what they eat
Victoria Wisniewski Otero says inefficient food scheme is ripe for change

Food. We all need to eat. It’s a basic human right and something most of us in Hong Kong take for granted.
By the time you read this, you will probably have already spent a fair amount on food and drink today: that morning coffee, an orange juice, maybe a muffin?
Yet imagine for one moment that you have no cash, are not allowed to work and have no family in Hong Kong to rely on. How do you feed yourself and your children? How do you buy food?
You don’t. Instead, you are given a prepackaged bag of food, which you have to pick up every five to 10 days from a shop, often far away from where you live.
You wake up early, travel several hours along the cheapest transport route to wait in line with many others to receive your food parcel on your designated day. Inside your bag are six small juice boxes, a carton of 10 eggs, a frozen chicken, two tubs of plain yogurt and a handful of bruised tomatoes and apples.
This food is supposed to be worth HK$40 per day, but when you compare it with food for sale in the local supermarket, you see it’s worth much less. It is meant to cover three meals each day and last until the next pick-up.
It isn’t what you asked for and you’re already anxious about how you will make it last, how you will feed your children.