“Rice of help” for those in need

Tuoi Tre
October 23, 2012

A restaurant sells lunch for loss, in the center of Ho Chi Minh City.

A day’s menu includes rice, chicken with a ginger sauce, fried vegetables with meat, vegetable soup with ground meat, a piece of papaya for dessert, free drinking water, and free parking. All of this costs just 2,000 dong, or a tenth of a US dollar, and guests can have unlimited rice.

Upon seeing the menu board and price hanging on the door of the restaurant named Nu Cuoi (Smile), located at 6 Ho Xuan Huong Street in District 3, many customers hesitate to step in.

This is because 2,000 dong is only enough for a glass of ice water at other restaurants in the city.

The Nu Cuoi staff, who are all volunteers, have received the same question many times from guests visiting for the first time. “Is that true, 2,000 dong?”

At 10:00 one morning, an emaciated man in his 60swearing worn-out clothes paused at the door and asked the same question. A staffer invited him to come in, confirmed the price, and told him the food is served at 11:00. She told him to buy a ticket for 2,000 dong and come eat when the meal was ready.

The news has spread among poor people as hospital patients, vendors, students and others come from remote areas to eat. As a way of expressing gratitude, most guests said, “it helps so much”.

Nguyen Van Duong, 65 and a regular guest of Nu Cuoi, said “I saw the price of 2,000 dong and a pledge of ‘clean, full, tasteful and friendly’. I tried it and admitted that the pledge is correct. It helps so much. I save 17,000 dong a meal and have more money for medication and health care costs.”

Nu Cuoi opens three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and offers 250 lunch meals each of these days.

The “help” for Hung, 13 from Tuy Hoa District in the central region, is to have a chance to eat pieces of braised chicken with ginger and save money to send home to his mother.

For a scrap iron picker named Hung from Binh Duong Province, the “help” is to be able to have a bath, as it costs him 5,000 dong for a bath. Thanks to the cheap price of lunch at Nu Cuoi, he can afford it. He earns 32,900 dong per day from the waste people throw away.

Some other guests of Nu Cuoi are more special.

A man just nodded after eating there and went away. Moments later he returned with two bags of rice to help the restaurant and left without leaving his identification.

After eating another man asked how many volunteers Nu Cuoi has. Later, he came back with almost 20 glasses of soya bean milk and said, “I want to give this to the staff here. You are all devoted. I love you.”

A pupil in the sixth or seventh grade insisted to pay for another ticket after his lunch.

Staffers worried he was not full and needed some more. But he replied, “I am too full. I just want to pay double the price as my contribution to Nu Cuoi.”

Devoted volunteers

The voluntary handbook of Nu Cuoi states, “Nu Cuoi always welcomes volunteers. You will be assigned in groups of P for selling tickets, R for washing, T for keeping order, and B for kitchen.

But actually, Nu Cuoi has to deny volunteers and promise to have work for them in the following days.

Most of them are students, drivers, and officers.

One of the rules for volunteers at Nu Cuoi is to stay amiable and maintain a friendly attitude towards all guests.

It is the respect and love from volunteers that helps guests feel assured and loved.

A scrap iron picker admitted he has never been invited into a restaurant. At Nu Cuoi he was.

Nguyen Minh Loc, Nu Cuoi chairman, said guests at his restaurant vary in personal background. 30 percent of them are students, another 30 percent are vendors, 25 percent are patients at nearby hospitals, and 15 percent remain unidentified.

He admitted that all donations come from philanthropists called “Sacred Money” and, are thus saved for preparing food for guests. Not a single penny is for management or the staff of Nu Cuoi, who are all volunteers.

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