Vegetarian Online Purchasing by FGS with Enthusiastic Support
On 23rd March 2020, New Zealand Prime Minster announced that, starting from 11:59 midnight 25th March 2020, Covid-19 Alert would be raised to level 4, and a nationwide lockdown would be imposed for a period of 4 weeks. According to New Zealand Ministry of Health’s statistics, as of the 24th March 2020, Covid-19 testings had been carried out for more than 8,000 people, out of which 150 people were confirmed as Covid-19 positive. Majority of those Covid-19 positive patients were people who have returned from overseas where they caught the disease. To prevent community transmission of the pandemic, New Zealand Government raised the Covid-19 Alert to level 4 where a lockdown was imposed.
To enable the devotees to have sufficient foodstuff in their homes during the lockdown, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island Minister-In-Charge Venerable Jue Xi led around 10 people, consisting of volunteers and Temple residents, in a non-stop preparation of FGS vegetarian foodstuff to cater to the needs of the devotees. With this kind and considerate gesture from Venerable Jue Xi, FGS devotees were spared the hassle of having to rush to crowded supermarkets for panic buying, but instead, could purchase, online, healthy FGS vegetarian foodstuff.
FGS vegetarian foodstuff under preparation included handmade vegetarian dumplings, vegetarian meat balls, vegetarian desserts, vegetarian stew-dishes, vegetarian steamed buns and pickled radish. Sales of the vegetarian foodstuff received overwhelming response from Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) members. The members thanked Venerable for her kindness and compassionate action. The activity of this nature not only could be a source of income for the Temple but also could help to reduce the expenditures of the devotees. It encouraged the devotees to practise vegetarianism during the pandemic as an act of cumulating good karma and transferring merits so generated to save the World of the pandemic. With the combined devotions of the devotees, surely the pandemic will come to an end soon!