Cover Story - METAGROUP

Promote Wellness in the F&B Industry and Raise Funds for Important Charitable Causes: F&B Run Club, an initiative founded by METAGROUP

In the past few years, the F&B industry has been through some extremely challenging times. METAGROUP through its various companies has been very active to support the F&B industry and its people through various initiatives and acts of benevolence to support the community.

Amongst others, the F&B Run Club was established to drive fundraising activities for local charities and also to help draw attention to mental health within the F&B industry, its workers, and the importance of wellness. The two charities involved are InspiringHK Sports Foundation and Lifewire Foundation. Both local charities will be tailoring fundraising and support for F&B families in need.

Chan, a Hong Kong-raised wellness enthusiast and F&B entrepreneur, has witnessed firsthand not only the devastating economic impact of the pandemic on the industry, but also F&B workers’ stress issues caused by the demanding nature of the work as well as the difficult environment all businesses currently face. As a result, he hopes that this positive new campaign will boost wellness levels and help those working in the F&B industry to achieve a sustainable balance between work-related stress and their overall health.

“In these devastating times for the F&B industry, we want to bring some positivity to our community and help those who have been impacted the hardest,” says Chan, founder of F&B Run Club. “Running and other forms of physical activity have a direct impact on improving overall fitness & mental health, so we want to encourage people in the industry to embrace a more active lifestyle while channelling energy into a worthy cause – and have a good time along the way.”

F&B Run Club’s inaugural mission is “Run to the Moon” with an aim of collectively accumulating 384,400 km (the distance from Earth to the moon) between 1st April and 31st December 2021. To help reach this ambitious goal, a select group of diverse industry personalities have

generously donated their time to amplify the campaign’s efforts as part of the F&B Run Club Committee. They range from restaurateurs (Syed Asim Hussain of Black Sheep Restaurants, Manuel Palacio of Pirata Group, Amanda Strang of Flakes & Layers, Alan Lo of Duddell’s) to bartenders (Agung Prabowo of Penicillin and Dead &, Jay Khan of COA) to journalists (Charmaine Mok of Tatler) and others filling various duties across the F&B ecosystem.

To date, the F&B Run Club has raised HKD400,000 and has close to 700 club members contributing their kilometres by running, jogging walking, or hiking. The pandemic has equalized everyone in this world, and we view all our F&B industry community as an integrated ecosystem, and want to do our best to channel positivity and channel benevolence along the way.”

Joining the cause couldn’t be easier. Participants need only download the Strava app (http://strava.com) and register, then request to join the F&B Run Club group (https://www.strava.com/ clubs/fnbrunclub). After being approved and added to the group, runners, walkers and hikers can start logging workouts using the app’s “RUN” setting to contribute toward the collective goal of 384,400 kilometres. Schedules for group activities will be posted on Strava, and updates will also be shared on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ fnbrunclub/) and the official website: https://www.fnbrunclub.com/.