Paradise Indian Restaurant, the popular biryani destination for most in Auckland has recently received much public love and adulation for the ‘Free Food’ corner for the people in need.
However, this is not an altogether new initiative for the famous restaurant.
This philanthropic move is being praised by the public but few people would know that Paradise restaurant has been distributing free food for the past two years from the old takeaway.
The new takeaway, opened in April 2016 just ten steps away from from the dine-in on Sandringham Road, has installed a small cupboard that reads ‘Free food for people in need’. The refrigerator has 15-20 boxes of vegetarian and non-vegetarian curries, bread, biryani and fruits for people to take.
“We used to keep extra boxes of packed food at our old takeaway and on an average 10-15 people would come every day and take them. Since we have a bigger space now, we thought of installing a fridge for them so it is more visible and the needy can take the food,” Salah Mohammad, owner of Paradise restaurant said.
With the free food counter more visible to customers at the shop, the restaurant has received media attention with people tweeting and Facebooking about this service to the community.
Paradise restaurant, however, shying away from the limelight says this is just a small community service they do, and they had always wanted to do this silently.
“We make bulk food at the restaurant, at the buffet and we get a lot of catering orders too, so we make extra food to be on safe side. We don’t want that extra food to go waste or stale, so we give it to the people who need it,” Mr Mohammad said.
Since the news of the free food service spread in the community via social media and news, more people have come to use the free food service.
“Nowadays we are getting 25-40 people every day taking the free food boxes with them. Our customers and visitors are now offering to be a part of this service and have asked if they can offer some food too,” he added.
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