Restaurant income spent on the poor

SAKARYA - Anatolia News Agency

The restaurant serves meals cooked with ingredients donated by benefactors to the poor every afternoon. Some 1,500 people come to eat at the restaurant everyday. AA photo

A relief fund in the northwestern province of Sakarya is using the profits that it earns from its restaurant to meet the needs of the poor.

The restaurant opened by the Sakarya Culture and Social Relief Foundation (SAKVA) serves meals cooked with ingredients donated by benefactors to the poor every afternoon. Between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. the restaurant serves meals for 5 Turkish Liras, and the needy are served free meals in the afternoon.

SAKVA General Director Mehmet Ersöz said the foundation was formed in 1994 and mostly served as a soup kitchen. “In this restaurant, we sell meals until 1:30 p.m. every day for a reasonable price, 5 liras, which is cheap enough for students. The money we take from these meals is then directly spent on food for the poor. Our customers know that they are contributing to a good cause by eating in this restaurant, so this is why we have a good number of customers.”

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Ersöz said donated food was used in cooking meals for the poor. “We cook two types of meals here. The meals we cook using the ingredients that we purchase are sold. The meals we cook using the ingredients donated by benefactors are given to poor people. We prepare meals for 1,500 people everyday,” he said.
Ersöz said they also deliver meals to homes of needy people every day. “If they don’t want to eat here, we bring their meal to their house.” He also said the organization sometimes gave fuel and clothes to the poor. “We do this in the night time in order to not offend people,” he said.