This place stuck with me.
A year ago I wandered into a small lane in Little India. I was there to offer my poor chopping skills for a few hours at the recommendation of an old friend. Fast-forward a year, I’ve still stuck with this place.
I’ve tried out volunteering with different causes, most of it driven by sheer curiosity on the topic. Homelessness, food wastage, poverty, pollution… all of them taught me a lot, but none of them stuck with me as deeply.
This place did.
Krishna’s Kitchen serves more than 600 people from all walks of life everyday. The kitchen stoves start burning at 4am, nearby migrant workers start coming by at 6am before heading over to construction sites, and the lunch time welcomes a more local population working near the area.
And they are truly an amazing example of a ground-up community effort:
- Food rescue organisations channel excess/unwanted fruits & vegetables twice a week from wholesale markets🥬
- More established soup kitchens shares excess equipment and food donations 🥣
- Businesses in the food industry donated commercial-grade equipment 🍽
- The beneficiaries themselves offer time & skills to help with plumbing, wiring and other improvement works 🔌
- Volunteers from all walks of life 🙋🏻♀️🙋🏾♂️🙋🏼♂️🙋🏽♀️🙆♂️
- Food rescue network clears out any excess food 🥡
It’s all good work and good cause, but the defining moment that made me return after my first (and very chaotic) visit was with the teenage daughter of one of the auntie-chefs.
“Eh, you like doing this ah”
🤔… No, I don’t like to chop vegetables or peel potatoes until my nails are brown for days. I’d rather have 2 more hours of sleep. But, I like why & how you guys do this.
“See you next week?”
😶… … Yes. Of course.
There are 1,001 ways to ‘do good’ and 100,001 opinions on what is ‘more effective’ than others. I’d say, whichever & whatever makes you want to stay.
