SOUP KITCHEN FOR THE LESS FORTUNATE

When Vivian told me that she was involved with her church's charity work, which she helped dishes out food to the beggars, the homeless and the poor on the streets. I thought that it was a good way of spending her free time during the weekends. Later I found out that it was "Soup Kitchen" run by Vital Connection, an organisation under the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Brisbane.

Their day started with preparation of food in the church's hall and later put into the chafing dishes. The volunteers will then transport the food by van to be sent to the city. They identified certain locations along the roadside and started dishing out vegetarian meals to the needy. Another van will come after that to serve coffee. The same group of volunteers with designated tasks will then clear out the site and return to the church. They do this three times a week but Vivian only joins in whenever her time permits.

Back here in Malaysia, we have a couple of Non-Profit Organisations that run the same "Soup Kitchen" to feed the poor. The soup kitchen in Alor Star which is in its 4th year running this charity work has now opened another outlet located in Jinjang, Kuala Lumpur. The Fungates Superflow Foundation is behind this social community work and its founder, Pastor Clarine Chun is overseeing the operation of the soup kitchen.

This coffee shop style eatery that provides free lunches from Sunday to Thursday to about 160 people including drug addicts, jobless youths, disables, homeless and senior citizens. Apart from providing free food, Pastor Chun also provides counseling to the drug addicts and managed to bring some of them to the rehabilitation.

Another society which run the same is Kechara Soup Kitchen, inspired and set up by His Eminence Tsem Tulku Rinpoche , a Buddhism based organisation. The centre distributes free packed dry food consist of biscuit, bread, tibbit and fruit together with mineral water every Saturday at the City Centre. The areas they cover are - Pudu Raya bus station, Pudu Market and Chow Kit. Activity starts at 4.30pm at Kechara House and volunteers will help pack and send the food to the respective areas and distribute to the less fortunate, regardless of race, religion or culture.

If you have some free time to spare and wish to spend it in a meaningful way, try to contact these centres who need volunteers:

- The Soup Kitchen, Alor Star and Jinjang, Kuala Lumpur - Pastor Clarine Chun - 04-7319189
or Angeline of Fungates at 03-798 388 27.
- The Kechara Soup Kitchen - Anna Tan - 012-6140861

Or, if you are in the Food industry and your establishment has fresh or an overrun of food and beverages that you wish to contribute, kindly send them to these organisations.

This is an awesome way of extending your compassion and practising Dharma at the same time.