As Yangon prepares for a 10-day lockdown, a new food scheme to secure free meals for the city’s most vulnerable is taking shape.
Education centre Journeys YGN has launched “Sar Pe Be Lar?”—meaning “have you eaten?”—which encourages customers of restaurants and teashops to pay a bit extra so the venues can prepare free dishes for anyone who needs them.
With the streets emptying to curb the spread of the coronavirus and thousands of day labourers out of work for the foreseeable future, the problem of hunger is looming over the city.
“Someone in food poverty who wanders past and sees a green sign saying there are meals available can just walk in and get a takeaway,” said Danny McCamlie, 30, a British teacher who leads Journeys YGN.
Six of the centre’s staff and five volunteers are recruiting restaurants to the programme, which uses the “pay it forward” concept seen in cafes from Italy to the United States.
A minimum 1,000-kyat donation at a restaurant or through a delivery service would mean a basic, nutritious meal for people without enough money, with a Myanmar language poster titled “Free Food" showing the business's participation.
“The big challenge for us at the moment is to get the word out to the restaurants,” McCamlie told Myanmar Mix.
Once enough businesses sign up, “the word on the street you can get food will spread very quickly,” he added. “Desperate times will call for people to be more aware of where they can get help.”
The team plans to spot check restaurants to ensure they are keeping to their pledge; they see the initiative as a means of feeding Myanmar’s poorest beyond the Covid-19 crisis and will expand it across the country.
McCamlie—whose education centre has released Myanmar language educational videos on the coronavirus—concedes that some people may take advantage of the scheme, or those in need may be too proud to use it.
“But that risk is far outweighed by the benefit it will bring to the people who do need it,” he said.
For volunteering opportunities, contact Journeys YGN through its Facebook page.
