For many in the Asian community, food is a love language. There are countless stories of Asian caregivers showing love with food, whether it be making delicious home-cooked meals, bringing their children groceries or serving cut fruit.
And during a time when hate crimes against Asians are on the rise, what better way to show love for the community than through food?
This is the idea behind Canadian food blogger and chef Jannell Lo‘s #DumpTheHate campaign. The virtual fundraiser invites participants to make 50+ dumplings to sell to close friends and family within their COVID bubbles and donate the proceeds to organizations supporting the Asian community (Lo has recommendations on her website). Lo also encourages participants to share the Dump the Hate graphic created by Elliot Caroll, along their own dumpling recipes or to host their own virtual dumpling-making parties.
“As a Chinese-Canadian chef and food blogger, I have been outraged by the spike in anti-Asian racism and violence during COVID-19,” Lo tells The RepresentASIAN Project. “I wanted a way to raise awareness and to get more people involved, so I came up with Dump the Hate to support and give back to the Asian community.”
“Even if you can’t make dumplings, the idea is for people to support the Asian community while having conversations about what is going on out there,” she continues.
Since the virtual fundraiser commenced on March 14, Dump the Hate has raised over $18,000 with nearly 6,000 dumplings made.
“I have been absolutely blown away by the support it has received,” says Lo. “[The rise of anti-Asian racism] really pushed me to want to make change. Many members of the Asian-Canadian and American communities have experienced a collective awakening recently and the healing has been so gratifying to be a part of.”
And while Dump the Hate’s main purpose is to raise awareness about anti-Asian hate and to support and give back to the Asian community, for some participants, making dumplings has helped them reconnect with their Asian identities.
Timothy Chan, a communications consultant based in Toronto who is participating in #DumpTheHate, says he started making dumplings a year and a half ago to connect with his Chinese roots.
“Growing up, I felt like I wanted to assimilate and I was ashamed of being Chinese,” he tells The RepresentASIAN Project. “It got to the point where I kind of erased my own identity in an effort and hope to gain membership into a community that I would never have access to because I’m not white.”
“To make those dishes helped me feel empowered and connected to my identity,” he continues.
Chan says the response to his contributions to Dump the Hate has also been “overwhelming, to say the least.”
“What started off as a way to better connect with my Chinese identity turned into a beautiful (and tasty!) form of activism,” he says.
Dump The Hate runs until April 4, 2021. For more information, visit mybfisgf.com/dumpthehate.
Supports and Resources:
To Report Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in Canada:
Mental Health Resources
- Asian Canadian Therapist Directory
- APISAA Therapist Directory
- Asian Mental Health Collective
- The Colour Project — anonymous text-based peer support for mental health with trained volunteers
- Subtle Asian Mental Health — private online community for peer support
Donate
- #StopAsianHate GoFundMe
- Red Canary Song — grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers, organizing transnationally
- Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network (Toronto-based)
- SWAN Vancouver — culturally-specialized supports and advocacy for im/migrant women engaged in indoor sex work
Additional Tools and Resources
- Alternatives to Calling Police
- Amplify Asian Voices | Readings + Resources created by Jezz Chung
- Anti-Asian Violence Resources
- Bystander Intervention Training
- Project 1907 — Vancouver-based grassroots organization helmed by Asian women and dedicated to elevating marginalized voices.
- Responding to Hate Toolkit (Ryerson)
