21 SEPT 2021 - 160 MEALS

Menu: Thai basil chicken and rice, chicken rice porridge

Meals served: 160

The rainy season is in full swing now in phuket with huge torrential rains that last for hours. Even in the heavy wet, many are lining up in the rain to collect our food packs. They stand in the rain, with their children and their food bags, in hope to collect just 1 set of food for their families. One of the questions we get from donors is often querying how we "sort out" if these people collecting these food packs are truly needy. During trying economic times like this, and in such heavy rains, those that risk going out to get a pack of rice are strongly motivated. And to date, we have not seen a single person drive up in a car, or nice car to collect free food. We do see some 60-70% of repeat faces, as you would expect as these are the ones that are suffering economic distress and know that our program can provide 1 hot meal a day. We have come to know of their personal stories, they are often sad. Most were making a living wage (barely) in the service industry. That work has disappeared and they are left troubled with rent to pay, kids to feed. How can we choose to ignore their plight? Please help us by donating. It only costs THB 32/ $1 per pack to provide a meal.

Curry and warm rice on a rainy day

Long queues lining up in the wet to receive food

As a reminder, we also appreciate having volunteers to help pack the meals. Our meal service can move a lot quicker if we can get 2 volunteers daily to help with operations. Please email us if you want to help out.

If you prefer to donate staple items instead of cash, also email us. Every bit helps.

For more photos, click here.

20 SEPT 2021 - 145 MEALS

Menu: Chicken porridge, Glass noodles soup and rice, Tuna curry and rice

Meals served: 145

We are getting increased demand and longer lines as many line up for food collection from Mon-Fri. It does not look like the economic situation is abating. Covid-19 is now ripping through Phuket on its third wave, with 200+ new cases daily. While there is a tourist sandbox being trialed, the absolute number of tourists coming onto the island is still a pittance of what was in previous past. Hotels remain at 20% occupancy and small hotels, shops and restaurants in tourist areas of Patong, Surin, Kalama, Kata remain hit. With the current vaccination progress in Thailand, it is evident that borders will stay closed until end of the year, despite what the Thai Tourism Authority says should be done. This means MORE ECONOMIC DISTRESS for the local folk. Please help us to achieve our goal of providing at least 15,000 hot meals to the needy families in Phuket. Click the donate button to give.

Tuna curry with fried egg on rice

We now have to turn away folks that show up late as all the food packs are gone in rapid time. We hope to produce more food packs, but that is completely contingent on us receiving funding from kind donors. If you like what we do, please tell others and share our joy at helping out the people of Phuket with a good meal.

17 SEPT 2021 - 150 MEALS SERVED

Menu: Chicken porridge, vegetable soup with rice, sticky rice dessert

Meals served: 150

Today, we had 2 food menu choices, with sticky rice dessert. A set of meals were packed and sent to a nearby village with Burmese and Thai families.

We are almost 1 month into our funding campaign start, and really hope to close the funding gap asap. We hope all potential donors can see the good effort and impact we have made to our local community. A few feathers in the cap include:

- Met our meals served goals of 150 meals per day (and sometimes more)

- Judicious expenditure, we are trying to manage our costs down in conjunction in hope to be able to serve more meals

- Reduced single use plastic and carrier bags issued. Most food collectors now bring their own!

We are still 50% away from our financing goal. Please help if you can. Your donation will not go wasted and we deploy every single cent towards providing more Hot meals for All. Donate here.

For more photos, click here.