During the implementation of social distancing in Ho Chi Minh City to the Covid-19 prevention, there have been several Buddhist pagodas’ kitchens that still daily cook thousands of charity meals for supporting medical force at the frontline, Covid-29 patients, and poor and homeless people in the city, including Tuong Nguyen pagoda located in Ward 8 of the city’s District 4.
Since Ho Chi Minh City implemented social distancing to prevent and control the Covid-19 epidemic, Venerable Thích Minh Phú, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha (VBS)’s Social Charity Board in the city cum Abbot of Tuong Nguyen pagoda has called on monks, nuns and lay Buddhists in the city for making practical contributions to the epidemic prevention and closely working with local authorities in ensuring social security.
From June 4 to July 14, the pagoda’s kitchen offered more than 300,000 charity meals (average 7,500 meals per day) for frontline doctors and nurses, and disadvantaged people in quarantine areas in the city.
From July 15, when moving to a new location at 79 Nguyen Huu Tho street in Nha Be district’s Phuoc Kien commune, the pagoda's kitchen cook 22,000-23,000 meals a day for several Covid-19 treatment hospitals in localities. The pagoda's kitchen currently offers nearly 30,000 charity meals per day.
In order to ensure the supply of such large numbers of meals, the pagoda has mobilized more than 150 volunteers to stay in place and be regularly Covid-19 epidemic tested.
Venerable Thích Minh Phú is coordinating work at pagoda’s kitchen and directly prepare meals
Venerable Thích Minh Phú shared that the pagoda’s kitchen has used about eight tons of vegetables and more than two tons of rice for cooking every day. Kitchen staff has been divided into several small teams to perform different functions. Specifically, the 1st team is in charge of receiving and sorting vegetables, the 2nd team is in charge of preliminary processing, the 3rd and 4th groups are in charge of cooking, the 5th to pack meals, the 6th to deliver meals to hospitals, and the 7th team is in charge of transferring materials from containers into cold storage to preserve.
Charity meals are delivered to Trung Vuong hospital
Not only offering large numbers of charity meals for Covid-19 treatment hospitals and locked-down areas, Tuong Nguyen pagoda has also launched many social charity activities over the past time.
The pagoda handed over on July 27 10 ventilators and 500 medical protective suits with the total value of over 380 million VND to doctors of Binh Dan hospital who currently in charge of treating Covid-19 patients at Field Hospital No. 8 located in Thu Duc City, and presented on July 5 1,500 medical protective suits and 10,000 K95 masks to Children's Hospital Branch 2 in the city for supporting to the Covid-19 prevention.
Presenting 10 ventilators to doctors of Binh Dan hospital
Handing over 1,500 medical protective suits and 10,000 K95 masks to Children's Hospital Branch 2
It is known that since the Covid-19 epidemic first appeared in Ho Chi Minh City in 2020, Tuong Nguyen pagoda’s kitchen cooked more than 100,000 meals for supporting to disadvantaged people severely affected by the epidemic in the locality.
