JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Eleven-year-old Sophie Kaiser, right, shares a laugh with her mother, Josephine, while making zongzi at the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation on Saturday, June 12, in Kaimuki. The Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, a nonprofit educational and community service organization in Kaimuki, produced 1,000 bundles of zongzi on Friday and Saturday to raise funds for COVID-19 relief in Asia, including hard-hit India. Zongzi is another name for joong, a Chinatown favorite made of sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, often filled with an egg and a chunk of pork. The Tzu Chi version is vegan, with a filling of chestnuts, mushrooms, daikon, black-eyed peas, tofu and peanuts — held together with a three-part mixture of rice (glutinous, black and multigrain). Zongzi is commonly made to celebrate the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, which will be held Monday, June 14. The bundles are sold for $4 each, mostly to the foundation's membership.