On September 8, 9, and 12, r é n and LMO Freshly Baked came together to host a community event at the latter’s pastry shop within Landmark with the aim of giving back to our supporters. Both of our R21 cohorts and their accompanying parents, as well as youths from our YES Programme, all joined the event to meet and greet members of our community.

 “We wanted to express our gratitude for everything that we’ve accomplished so far this year,” says our founder, Jo Soo Tang. “And we wanted to spread the positivity and love from all our members for joining our thread through food.”

That food, of course, came in the form of delectable pastries from LMO Freshly Baked, helmed by the hotel’s culinary director and Amber head chef Richard Ekkebus alongside LMO executive pastry chef Carles Codina. Thanks to their generosity, members of our community were given cash vouchers to use at the pastry shop, where they could redeem them for anything they liked, from beautiful canelés and madeleines to luscious cookies and various fruit Danishes. There was truly something for everyone to enjoy.

“We’ve had a long relationship with Jo and have been supportive of various r é n campaigns over the past years,” chef Richard explains. “We’re always excited when an opportunity presents itself to support and give back where we can, and that’s exactly what this community event was for us. It’s an integral part of Landmark Mandarin Oriental and also a part of our social pillar in our sustainability efforts to give back to our community where possible and where needed.”

Chef Carles agrees, adding that “supporting initiatives like r é n and the underprivileged youth of Hong Kong is fundamental to who we are. Chef Richard actively seeks out opportunities to raise both awareness and funds for meaningful causes, and I am very happy to support these causes and be part of these campaigns.”

Our mission and network maybe be gradually growing, but here at r é n, we’re always looking out for more connections to make and collaborations to be formed, and as we express our gratitude to our community before the year wraps, we are also looking ahead to next year with anticipation and hope. If you’re reading this and are also considering working with us, collaborating, or simply just want to support our cause, our longtime partner chef Richard has the following words:

“It is incredible rewarding and humbling to contribute and I recommend any business or restaurant to do their part in community service, not only from a CR perspective, but it is an incredible powerful and rewarding engagement for a company and the teams, it creates unity and empowers the team members to do good for our community we are all part of, building a better tomorrow for this amazing city.”