Today's Date: March 28, 2024
MDA SPACE INCLUDED IN THE GLOBE & MAIL'S ANNUAL WOMEN LEAD HERE RANKING   •   Sila Moses Lake Manager Rosendo Alvarado to Speak at Big Bend Community College Building the Future Energy Workforce Event   •   35 National Partners Representing Over 3 Million Women Join Women's Suffrage National Monument Foundation's Growing Coalition   •   $122.5 Million Healthcare Transformation Grant Launches Center for Better Aging   •   Colibri Group Announces Partnership with The University of Tulsa for Professional Licensure Program for Students in Real Estate,   •   Terragia Secures $6M to Develop Cost-Competitive, Low-Carbon Biofuel Technology   •   Impact Communications Signs Best-Selling Book Author and Financial Advisor Coach Derrick Kinney   •   Join Us as We Stand Together and March Against Hate in Dallas, Texas   •   Dawson-Forté Cashmere Shareholders Sell Majority Equity Stake to Tempus Partners   •   LambdaTest Launches The Phoenix Project, an Employee Resource Group for Women   •   Details of “SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024” Showcase Program Announced   •   Tax Tip From MEFA: Send Your Tax Refund Directly to Your 529   •   RICE Announces Strategic Leadership Additions, Cementing Its Role as the Nation's Largest Entrepreneurial Hub   •   Reveal Technology, Inc. Receives $3.2M Award With U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL)   •   Newman University Receives $1.2M Towards Higher Education Access for Southwest Kansas Initiative   •   G&A INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES 2024 PATHFINDER WEBINAR SERIES: Navigating the New Regulatory Environment for Corporate Sustainabili   •   First Book and Ashoka Announce 15 Youth Challenge Winners in Time for Change Nationwide Initiative   •   Six Degrees Marketing Recognized on the 2024 Inc. 5000 Regionals List   •   iLearningEngines, Inc. to Add Michael Moe and Sir Ian Davis to its Board of Directors   •   Ziebart Salutes Franchisees, Veterans & Community in Celebration of 65-Year Legacy and Reveals Future Initiatives
Bookmark and Share

Taking A Bite Out Of The Census: Two million Fortune Cookies Are Produced For Campaign

iexaminer.org, News report, Michelle Tanaka, 

Seattle’s Tsue Chong Co. is producing 2 million fortune cookies with special messaging in an effort to raise awareness of the 2010 Census.

“You will find fame and fortune,” reads one cookie’s fortune. The other side says, “Put down your chopsticks and get involved in Census 2010!”

The first batch of Census fortune cookies was made at the Seattle-based Tsue Chong fortune cookie company on Feb. 17 and will be distributed to restaurants and grocery stores in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

The 2010 Census questionnaire will be mailed in mid-March and Census Day will be held on April 1. The questionnaire is available in six different languages including simplified Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese with language-assistance guides in 59 languages.

“We just want to spread the message that the Census is important,” said Ralph Lee, Seattle Regional Census Center director. “It determines our congressional representation and funding; over $400 billion is allocated each year based on Census.”

The data is also used to determine locations for retail stores, schools, hospitals, new housing developments and other community facilities. The Census is safe, says Lee, who affirms that information will not be shared with other federal or law enforcement agencies, and with only 10 questions, filling out the 2010 Census is easy.

“It’s important, it’s safe and it’s easy,” said Lee. “And certainly now, with the unveiling of our 2 million fortune cookies, it now tastes good!”

The U.S. Census Bureau decided to partner with Tsue Chong in an effort to reach Asian America, a hard-to-count population, explained media specialist Cecilia Sorci of the U.S. Census Bureau in Bothell.
Tsue Chong manager Timothy Louie, who is also the great-grandson of Tsue Chong’s founder, led a visitor’s tour of the factory on Feb. 17. It started with a ride on the freight elevator to the third floor, where the fortune cookies are made. Once the elevator doors opened, a rich vanilla scent filled the room. “It smells good,” exclaimed a visitor.

“The cookies are made from my grandma’s original recipe,” Louie said. “Wheat flour, sugar, vanilla – you can probably smell that. The liquids are water, fresh eggs — Grandma insisted fresh eggs cracked from the shell, and she blended a coconut shortening to give our cookies a special unique taste.”
Louie explained there are two types of machines. One is an older style and the other is a high-speed machine that produces 8,000 fortune cookies in an hour. Cookie batter is dropped onto a griddle and baked for a couple minutes. Then the machine inserts a fortune paper into each pliable cookie wafer and then the cookie is folded in half and quartered to create its classic shape.

David Choy, a former U.S. Census employee and restaurant owner, knew the owners of Tsue Chong through the restaurant business. He approached the owners of Tsue Chong with the idea of inserting Census messaging in their fortune cookies and they gladly agreed.

Tsue Chong is now one of 170,000 partners with the U.S. Census. These partnership efforts help save extra costs. For every person who does not mail in their questionnaire, it costs $65 to track them down in person. And every person who isn’t counted equals the loss of $1,400 in federal money per year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We rely on community partners because they are the community leaders, friends and neighbors— perhaps someone you see regularly,” said Sorci. “They reinforce the message and they are trusted.”
“It pleases me and gives me a great thrill to partner with the Census for such an important effort,” said Tsue Chong co-owner Bessie Fan. “I’m glad we’re doing it. We are proud of it and we are very, very honored.”

For more information, please visit: 2010.census.gov



Back to top
| Back to home page
Video

White House Live Stream
LIVE VIDEO EVERY SATURDAY
alsharpton Rev. Al Sharpton
9 to 11 am EST
jjackson Rev. Jesse Jackson
10 to noon CST


Video

LIVE BROADCASTS
Sounds Make the News ®
WAOK-Urban
Atlanta - WAOK-Urban
KPFA-Progressive
Berkley / San Francisco - KPFA-Progressive
WVON-Urban
Chicago - WVON-Urban
KJLH - Urban
Los Angeles - KJLH - Urban
WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
New York - WKDM-Mandarin Chinese
WADO-Spanish
New York - WADO-Spanish
WBAI - Progressive
New York - WBAI - Progressive
WOL-Urban
Washington - WOL-Urban

Listen to United Natiosns News