ANC Charity Club concludes a successful Community Kitchen project.
The Charity Club here at the ANC Education hosted the “Community Kitchen Project”, an initiative undertaken while joining hands with the “Voice for Voiceless Foundation”, a government-recognized non-profit organization.
The foundation looks to emulate the “Soup Kitchens” predominantly seen over in first-world nations like the U.S., hoping to continue providing for those unable to gain access to a nutritious meal daily.
Of the six locations sprawled across the nations each supporting 1,200 meals over the course of a day, we had been lucky enough to be privy to the Rajagiriya location, bringing along our volunteers, combining ANC’s students and management alike.
Despite what has understandably been a tough time for us all, we were able to gather funds past our initial goal thanks to our ticket sales, having had several members pitch in to contribute to supplying the produce required for the meal. The event was a definitive success, going on to feed 306 adults and an additional 30 children as part of the afternoon’s effort.
Detailing how the day unfolded, one of the many members hard at work setting up the serving station, Charity Club member and volunteer Mohamed Ihshan explained how,
“It was a great experience to take part in this event. Seeing how happy the people were once they had received the meals we had offered really told a tale of how privileged we have been to in the least relatively curb such a crisis.”
The day is in stark contrast to what our students here at ANC themselves regularly experience. Lucky enough to be placed in a position to in fact help service the struggles of those who walked in simply looking forward to a hot meal, it truly puts into perspective how fortunate we have been, as we find ourselves toiling away in the kitchen for a few hours, coming nowhere near the struggles a large part of the nation currently faces.
On such a comparison, student volunteer Thevin Bandara mentioned how this was,
“A heartfelt experience where I felt like we all connected with the struggles of the people. It was truly an honour to help those in need to know that there are people who care for them.”
Thevin’s statement truly reflects on the need for more such community-oriented volunteer projects, seeing that it is certainly quite important to stress how crucial efforts on this scale are, especially in the status quo, where even the most basic of necessities are barely being met in the average household amid the deepening financial crisis.
Recent reports by the United Nations suggest that at least 86% percent of the country was now utilizing coping mechanisms in order to better face the economic crunch, often having to limit their daily food intake or even skip meals altogether. At a point where the prices of essential goods have drastically increased with the national income nowhere near being able to satiate that hike, the reliance on initiatives based on the goodwill of those better privileged and fortunate enough to contribute is like never before.
The President of the Charity Club stated our previous charitable efforts, dating all the way back to our Flood Relief donation package provision in 2018, our regular visits to the Prithipura Community and our most recent endeavour as part of the Christmas Relief Project last year have all sought to be a way in which we have been able to give back to our communities.
In a similar vein and in the spirit of doing for the community and embedding in our culture the need to foster the society we ideally see ourselves living in, the ANC Charity Club hopes to continually be a part of several Good Samaritan-esque programs over the course of our functioning, while we look forward to the active participation of our members in achieving the albeit ambitious but sustainable goals we have set for ourselves in the long run.