Viet Nam News
For only VND2,000 (less than US10 cents), guests at the Smile Eatery Network in HCM City receive a nutritious meal of rice, braised pork, vegetables and soup.
The network’s six eateries are staffed by volunteers, including Bui Quang Long, a driver who works for an office near Eatery on Cong Quynh Street in District 1.
Long, who works during his lunch hour, says he wants to help the poor. Most of the guests are manual labourers, lottery sellers, scrap-iron dealers and pedicab or motorbike taxi drivers.
Nam Dong, one of the founders of the Smile Eatery Network, says all of the eateries have met hygienic standards and have become so popular that the network plans to expand.
Every day, guests stand in line at the eateries beginning at 11am.
Le Dinh Phuong, a 79-year-old from Phu Yen Province, who earns his living selling lottery tickets, eats meals there and says the volunteers treat him well.
Most of the people who have donated funds to the eateries do not want to be named. Two young women who donated VND300,000, for example, left a note, saying “no need for us to be named”.
One day, a young girl showed up at an eatery with a 50kg bag of rice, saying that she wanted to ensure that the poor had enough to eat.
John William Kelly, an American veteran who visited HCM City in 2011, works as a volunteer six days per week for the network.
The Smile Charity Eatery network includes Smile No 1 on Cong Quynh Street in District 1; Smile No 2 on Nguyen Ngoc Nhut Street in Tan Phu District; Smile No 3 at 298A Huynh Tan Phat Street in District 7; Smile No 4 at 132 Ben Van Don Street in District 4; and Smile No 6 at 43 Trung Trac Street in Thu Duc District.VNS