HCM CITY – Three days a week, 11 volunteers meet at An Phú Communal House in HCM City’s District 2 to cook meals for the poor in the area.
Many of the visitors to the kitchen, open every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, are food vendors and sellers of lucky tickets.
Võ Thị Gái, chairwoman of the Red Cross Society in An Phú Ward, is in charge of visiting local markets at 6am to buy fresh food.
“Most of the traders at the market know that I buy food to cook free meals for the poor, so they offer me reasonable prices,” Gái says.
Menus on the white board list rice, soups, vegetables, fish and meat.
Nguyễn Thị Mai Quỳnh, 69, the cook for the charity meals, says the dishes are ready to eat by 9am. Around 140 people are served every day.
“It’s not a big thing, but I feel really happy,” Quỳnh says.
Members of all trade unions in An Phú Ward’s People’s Committee have given cash donations to the ‘kitchen’, according to Nguyễn Văn Hải, deputy chairman of the committee.
Hồ Thị Thu Xuân, a street seller of lottery tickets, says that she and her husband often eat at the communal house. “The delicious meals are a great treat to us.” – VNS
OVietnam