Pay-it-forward meals for the homeless gaining traction
The concept of paying for someone else's meal in advance, especially for a needy person, has begun to gain traction in Malaysia, and this Christmas and holiday season, what better time to do so than now?
For only RM7, a meal can be gifted to a poor person by making an online pledge at the Meals for All Facebook page.
Meals For All, a charitable initiative started by Ramesh Vadiveloo, the restauranteur behind Frontera, a Mexican food joint in Jaya One, caters to the urban poor with donations from the public.
Through a collaboration with various restaurants and soup kitchens, they convert public donations into food for the urban poor, including the homeless.
"The idea for Meals For All was a spark of the moment, when I wanted to do something charitable with my passion. My passion is food," he said in an interview.
The idea of paying it forward first gained popularity when a social movement called Suspended Coffees was launched in March 2013. A suspended coffee is the advance purchase of a cup of coffee for someone else.
Ramesh believes that with the help of social media, the idea of suspended meals is picking up fast and is positive that it would only become more popular in the future.
In particular, suspended meals allows individuals to donate as much as they can afford and the donors know what exactly happens to the RM7 (or the multiples of RM7) that they donate.
He sees the promise in what he does because it is easy to duplicate the idea at various restaurants.
Meals For All has 10 core volunteers who put together a wholesome meal of carbohydrates in the form of rice or pasta, with a serving of protein, vegetable, fresh fruits and dessert. The meals are sub-divided into three types – children's meal, main meal and latepacks (or back-up packs).
About 450 of such meals are distributed to needy people.
For distribution, Meals For All collaborates with groups like Need to Feed the Need (NFN), a street soup kitchen whereby free meals are give out to the urban poor in Kuala Lumpur.
The meals are given out every Thursday at Chow Kit, with various soup kitchens like Pertiwi, The Nasi Lemak Project and Kechara taking turns to provide said meals for the rest of the week.
NFN co-founder, Cindy Gan, said that they had to buy food from the mamak to cater to the sudden rise in demand before deciding to source the food from more permanent sources.
At present, she said that their food is something to be proud of as it consists of a huge amount of rice, a sizable piece of chicken and a good amount of vegetables.
"Those who donated their money are invited to come and see for themselves how their money are spent. Some even take the opportunity to interact with our street clients," she said.
Gan said that NFN distributes meals prepared from different sources, for instance, 50 packs of food from Simply Mel's in Bangsar South, 350 packs bought with the soup kitchen's funds and 50 packs of kids' meals by Meals for All.
At a recent distribution, NFN also gave out gifts and cupcakes to children whose birthdays were in December and Christmas presents to mark the holiday season. All items were donated by their many sponsors. – December 29, 2014.
