This restaurant to donate to needy all earnings made on World Food Day

Muscat: A restaurant in Al Khuwair has made a pledge to donate all the money it makes on World Food Day to the needy, so that they can help alleviate their plight a little.

World Food Day falls on Wednesday, 16 October, and Jashn restaurant in Al Khuwair will give to Dar Al Atta’a all the earnings it makes from sales on that day. This money can then be distributed to the needy as the charity organisation sees fit.

Deepak Daryani, the owner of the restaurant, has been doing such activities for a while now, and has asked people in Oman to come to his restaurant on World Food Day and spend money, even if it is just a Rial.

“We will be giving the proceeds of the entire sales that we make on that day,” he told Times of Oman. “For example, if we bring in OMR 1,000, 30 to 40 percent of that amounts to our food costs, so essentially, we are giving 30 percent from our pocket, and the customers’ proceed will amount to 70 percent. We will give the money as is, we will not subtract anything from that for our use. On average, we do about OMR 300 to 500 on weekdays, but on that day, we need for people to come and spend so that we can donate more. We will donate whatever revenues we have generated on the 16^th.

“A lot of people in Oman have problems at the moment, and we are still better off as compared to many others,” added Deepak, who also owns Kesar restaurant in CBD and Studio 968 in Al Khuwair. “It is easy to do things when you are doing well, but when you are not, and you see someone worse off than you, that is when you need to help them as well. We get quite a few people who come into our restaurant and sometimes, people are embarrassed to come to our restaurant and ask for food, so we decided to set up a fridge to help the needy.”

This is not the first time Deepak has taken such initiatives: two years ago, his restaurant bought Ramadan boxes for labourers, and he plans on installing a fridge outside his restaurant from where needy people can come and take food without facing any judgement.

“I am planning to put a fridge outside my restaurant from where needy people can grab a meal if they need it,” he said. “I have already received municipality permission and am just waiting for permission from the landlord. It is not going to be a very fancy meal, but a more basic one, with curry, rice, roti and daal, which is what you need to survive. They will be pre-packed and made every morning. We will start with five or 10 meals and place it there with bottles of water. People are welcome to come and take it, no questions asked.

“We are doing whatever small things that we can to help others. If anyone walks into my restaurants and tells us that they are hungry, I have asked my staff to not let anybody go away hungry.

We can give them some basic food – a glass of water, some buttermilk and some food – but I cannot turn them away, because I believe that sometimes, when a needy person visits you, it is like god visiting you. We do have, on and off, some needy people who come. There are labourers outside, for example, that sit outside, sweating under the hot sun, so we gave them food and water.

There were a lot of blue-collar workers who were laying communication cables, fixing sewage lines, so we decided to help them out. believe that if you do good things, then good things will happen to you. There are people at the moment whose needs are greater than ours.”