This Hong Kong kitchen serves 2,200 free meals a week to those who need help – and it’s been a long time coming, founder says
- The Kind Kitchen, an initiative by NGO ImpactHK, serves the homeless, street cleaners, the elderly in need of food support, ethnic minorities and refugees
- ImpactHK founder Jeff Rotmeyer says he has dreamt of opening something like this for a long time and it is ‘beautiful to watch’ staff take pride in it
It’s 9am on a humid Monday morning and The Kind Kitchen’s roller shutter, covered in colourful street art, slowly winds its way up.
One of the first through the door is Eppie Yip Yuen-man. She’s excited to get to work in the kitchen, the latest initiative by ImpactHK, an NGO that helps the city’s homeless and those experiencing food insecurity.
For Yip, a mother of two who shares a flat with three other women in a shelter, working in the kitchen (which opened in April) allows her to save money to live independently in future.
“I get on-the-job training and make a salary,” says Yip, 58, who wears a T-shirt bearing the slogan #kindnessmatters, the NGO’s motto. “One day, I want to rent a flat for myself.”
Cindy Tse also works in the kitchen. A few years ago, a combination of personal issues and health problems – at one stage, she struggled to walk, breathe and had a blood pressure level of over 200 – led to her living on the streets for six months. Today, the 48-year-old is one of four former homeless people working in the kitchen, carrying out duties ranging from cleaning to preparing food.