15 Oct 2021 - 225 MEALS // SURPASS 1,000 MEALS THIS WEEK // Agoda Volunteers

Menu: Spicy Thai basil chicken and rice

Meals served: 225 Meals

Today we welcomed Agoda.com's volunteers, who will be sending through volunteers to our food relief program weekly. Sunee made thai basil chicken and rice, always a favorite from our kitchens.

Of note, we also surpassed 1,000 meals served this week, against our initial goals of 750 meals per week. This is to the credit of Sunee, Aland for their hard work and to our volunteers whose fast hands help to make our goals of serving 15,000 meals a reality!

Again, please do not hesitate to reach out to volunteer. Just drop us an email. Also, if you prefer to donate items, please email us to organize. And of course, if you wish to financially contribute, then please click here to donate.

The food lines are always so long. Please help us bring food to the many that need a hot meal.

14Oct 2021 - 258 MEALS!

Menu: Chicken vegetable soup, chicken porridge, biscuits for kids

Meals served: 258

New record number of meals served today! We are very excited about that as our new volunteers have been duly onboarded and working very well as a packing team. We made a record number meals and delivered food packets to nearby sois.

We are always searching for good volunteers. Please email us if you are interested to help out. Also, if you wish to be part of our journey to fund 15,000 meals, please click here to donate.

We are not seeing the food queues abating. There is talk of Phuket reopening for tourism on 1 Nov, but it is likely that the trickle down effect will happen anytime soon. Many small business owners are still hesitant to plough capital in to restart their businesses. Many have been burnt from previous past as the Thai government doesn't provide clear operating plans, pulling back at random and leaving the small guys stuck with the bills and many families hungry. We hope the situation changes soon. In the meantime, we will keep providing hot meals Mon-Fri!

13 OCT 2021 - 204 MEALS, STORIES & INTERVIEWS

Menu: Egg, spicy curry chicken and rice, cucumber with stir fry chicken, biscuits

Meals served: 204

Today Sunee served spicy and fragrant curry chicken and cucumber with stir fry chicken as 2 meal choices. She also specially made stew chicken for the children that is non-spicy.

We also welcomed a reporter from Le Monde, the french newspaper, who is in and around Phuket and Thailand covering the impact of Covid on its economy and people. So we had a chance to interview and hear the stories from those that collect our food packets. It is always good to know the beneficiaries whom we are helping.

Here are some highlights:

- Most of the working poor here in Phuket are migrants from other province, in our food line yesterday we had folks from Bangkok, Nakhon Si Thammarat, other countries such as Nepal and mountain tribe people, all were working here previously but now have no jobs.

- Quite a number came to collect food from us from Kathu and Karon. Which is pretty far to go just to get 1 pack of hot food, but they know we have been consistently serving for past 2 years so it is worth the trip.

- Almost all we spoke to lived in multi-generational homes, 4-8 in one room places, which they rent month to month. It has been difficult as multiple younger persons in the family household are jobless. So everyone is just scraping the bottom of the barrel to get buy. Many were late on rent.

This taxi driver thanked us for providing food for past 2 years. He said today he made THB 60. It is slow and hard going but there are simply no tourists anymore. But still he plys his trade daily, because what else can he do?

This gentleman works as a security guard in a nearby hotel in Patong, but lives with 6 other family members in Chalong. He used to make THB 11K per month but since covid, he has to work the same hours but makes only THB 5K. His room rent to house his whole family costs THB 3K. He simply cannot make ends meet. He collects our food pack daily just to shave off some personal expenses as every cent counts. He is also 70 years old and still working.

It was certainly eye opening to hear from the horse' mouth how covid has impacted "the small guy". Sure big businesses are suffering, but there is a blue collar class of workers and the poor that have been made even more impoverished by this virus and by poor government planning.