COVID-19, what doesn’t it affect? Businesses both big and small felt its wrath. This includes a humble crimson red brick-and-mortar restaurant on a busy road in Petaling Jaya called Awesome Canteen.
Co-owner and manager Dora Ong said that the first few weeks of the first MCO was focused on sustaining the restaurant. At the time, the eight-year-old restaurant lost half of its income due to dine-in restriction and their absence in food delivery platforms.
Months passed and the restaurant slowly picked up its pace. While everyone was looking for ways to survive the pandemic, the restaurant headed in a different direction of helping those who are unfortunate, effectively and creatively.
“When the cases start hitting at 10,000, we started reading a lot of news about people committing suicide and people facing difficulty.
“There are a lot of people who had very low morale and they do not know what to do. They were thinking, when is this going to end? So that's where I decided to come up with this movement.
“We placed a box of white paper for people to collect. So when they collect the white paper or bring their white paper, they'll just give it to our waitress or our cashier. Once they hand us the white paper, we get the message, no questions asked – we will give them free food.”
What makes them different from others? The restaurant not only provides free food to the needy but also make sure that it’s cooked fresh when served.
“When they give us the white paper, we will fire the food in the kitchen and cook fresh for them. So upon receiving, the food is warm and freshly cooked. Because sometimes if you place the food outside, after one or two hours, the food may turn cold and doesn't taste as good.”
Awesome Canteen also works with individuals and NGOs to provide food to areas in need. This also includes individuals who are helping people in PPRs who are homebound.
“Every time we give, it incurred a lot of costs, because we have to stop our operation. We have to boost our resources and manpower to cook 100 to 200 packs.
“We are very grateful to a lot of supporters. Our regular clients, our associates, our friends who have donated, whether in terms of fundings or ingredients. Some people send us eggs every week just for this purpose. And even our supplier is helping by giving chicken or fish at a very low cost.
“We are one of the frontliners. Of course, our risk is not as high as doctors and nurses. But in a way, we do risk our lives to do delivery. We provide food to service people from all walks of life.
“My message to others is: let's just be positive, be hopeful and be persistent in what we are doing and believe in. I believe with all this positivity, we will be able to fight this virus together and live with it.” – The Vibes, October 24, 2021
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