Changhua Lelin Food Bank won the Asia-Pacific Sustainability Action Award for three consecutive years, and Chairman Hong Yuwen won the Top Sustainability Award

Local nonprofits can shine on the international sustainability stage too! Lelin Food Bank, which started in Erlin, Changhua, won the 2026 5th Asia Pacific Sustainability Action Awards (APSAA) SDG 17 "Partnership" Gold Level Award for Non-profit Organizations with its "Cross-Domain Cooperation and Local Sustainability Action" plan, setting a record of winning gold for three consecutive years.

Chairman Hong Yuwen also won the "Top Sustainability Award", becoming the only winner from a food bank and a local social welfare organization in Taiwan. Both organizations and individuals won the award.

This year, a total of 107 units and 187 projects participated in the competition. Only 32 projects won the Gold Award, of which 6 were non-governmental organizations. Only 4 people won the Top Sustainability Award. The key to Lelin's ability to stand out is that it upgraded simple "food assistance" into a rigorous "local social safety net."

Lelin Food Bank was initiated and established by Erlin Town Mayor Cai Shijie in 2019. With the core of "cherishing food, replenishing food, and making food", its services span 3 counties and cities, including Changhua, Nantou, and Yunlin, and 12 towns, connecting 32 community refrigerators. It serves more than 2,000 people per month and dispatches more than 15,000 kilograms of supplies. It has also introduced 24-hour smart pickup equipment to overcome the time and space constraints of picking up supplies in rural areas. It also provides guidance to middle-aged and elderly women and second-time employed women to create local job opportunities.

Cai Shijie said that although the place is not big, as long as the government, enterprises, schools, communities and volunteers are connected together, huge power can be created. Hong Yuwen attributed the honor to all partners, emphasizing that every volunteer, company, and well-wisher who transported supplies was an indispensable force for Lelin to get to where it is today.