A Toronto woman who took up a chef's call to #dumpthehate by fighting anti-Asian hate with dumpling-making had to cap orders after receiving an overwhelming response.

Canice Leung posted to her Instagram that she'd be taking part in Janell Lo's Dump the Hate fundraiser on Tuesday morning, coincidentally just before the tragic murder of six Asian women at Atlanta spas. 

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Aside from concerns about prevalent anti-Asian sentiment, Leung was also inspired to take action after a cyclist biking on the sidewalk called her a "zipperhead" while she was waiting for a banh mi in Toronto's own Chinatown. 

"I donate to ESN and the community fridges and my peers are involved with those efforts, so it was a natural effort," Leung told blogTO. "I make a lot of dumplings, I've always shared them. This was an opportunity to make them for friends I haven't seen in a while and an excuse to raise money."

She says her reaction to the slur being hurled at her in Chinatown was that it was "funny then annoying" especially because "it's been a year and we're still blaming Asians" for the global pandemic. When she happened upon the Dump the Hate campaign, she decided to participate.

Leung thought she'd make a "couple hundred" dumplings but had to cap orders at 500 because it was "kinda going nuts" with people sharing. In her post, she asked people to send screenshots of receipts of donations to organizations, suggesting Chinese Canadian National Council, Butterfly and Cecil Community Centre.

She's raised $740 and counting so far, and figures even more people probably donated than she's aware of. Leung emphasizes that this is meant to be mutual aid, not charity.

"It's not about charity, it's about helping people in the community because you care," says Leung. "I like to cook, like to give food, it seemed like a good opportunity."

She also shouts out the many other mutual aid initiatives taking place in Toronto at this difficult time, and notes that there are many Toronto restaurants that are themselves a part of the Asian community that are always selling frozen dumplings and should be supported like Mother's Dumplings, Dumpling House and Daily Dumpling.

"I'm really not a hero. Everyone has it within them to offer mutual aid to their community, whether or not tragic shootings are happening. We should be here to support each other, especially when it targets BIPOC women or marginalized massage parlour or sex workers," says Leung.

"We should normalize mutual aid. Make it a regular thing to buy extras in your weekly grocery shopping, or give $20 to one thing every week, or whatever you can do."