One New Taipei City restaurant’s generous 12-year tradition of offering free meals to those in need was almost derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic, until donors raised NT$200,000 to save it.
Chen Chin-hsing (陳進興), owner of A-hsing Braised Pork Rice (阿興魯肉飯) in Jhonghe District (中和), began the practice in 2009 after enduring a period of hunger himself.
As a young man, Chen put everything he had into a business that failed, leaving him destitute and without food to eat most days, he said.
Photo courtesy of Yeh Yuan-chih
After getting back on his feet, Chen opened the restaurant and began offering free meals to help others in similarly dire straits.
It was mostly the homeless and older people who lived alone who would come in for complimentary meals, he said.
As the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, more people began coming in looking for a warm meal after seeing their incomes slashed, he added.
The number skyrocketed when level 3 restrictions were implemented in May, Chen said.
Where he would once feed 80 to 90 people for free each day, in addition to more than 200 customers, now the numbers are flipped, with only 80 to 90 customers for every 200 free meals, leaving the business without enough income to keep operating, he said.
However, others took notice. Members of the public raised NT$100,000 to help Chen through this difficult time, with a matching donation promised by New Taipei City Councilor Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之).
Although the restaurant is in Jhonghe District, it has a “strong social impact,” with people coming from all over the city in search of a warm meal, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilor said.
Chen also makes efforts to understand the hardships these people are facing, even going so far as to match people with organizations that are able to help, Yeh said.
As an example, Chen recently matched people with emergency relief funds from social welfare foundations, “illuminating the darker corners of society and making up for deficiencies in public resources,” Yeh said, adding that the pandemic has been difficult for many, but has also brought out the goodness in countless others.
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