10 Cafes/Restaurants You Should Visit to Eat for a Good Cause

Singaporeans are food lovers and we bond over the sharing of food any time of the day. In today’s world, we are often thankful that we have the means to eat out, share food and basically enjoy the lifestyle that we choose.

Sometimes, we do see needy people who need a helping hand and we wondered how we can possibly extend help to them without making them feel inferior.

The solution to this classic question is simple – visit a social enterprise that is providing these people with some form of help! Check out the list of cafes and restaurants below that you can visit for a good cause.

Bliss

This restaurant typically hires marginalised groups of people who could not find jobs elsewhere. The owner Christine Low set up Bliss in the early 2000s and offers a job to anyone who is willing to work.

The restaurant serves up yummy food creations such as surf and turf cooked on hot stones and bowls of perfectly cooked mussels. The bar is also something worth visiting Bliss for.

 Bettr Barista

Bettr Barista is set up in 2011 by Pamela Chng and it has been training disadvantaged women aged 17-50 and youth at risk (both men and women) in the art of coffee making.

It has a lot of courses targeted at different people and even offers a course for the public who wishes to learn more about coffee. Bettr Barista offers you the perfect latte whenever you need one and you can also purchase their coffee beans to bring the wonderful beverage home.

Check out the video to see how they train these women into superstars baristas.

Nox

Nox is a really special place. When you walk into the restaurant, you must be prepared to dine in the dark. Nox provides a unique experience for all to eat in total complete darkness, mirroring the lives of people who are blind.

Their servers are mostly blind as well, and they will be your guide from the door to the table and back again. During the meal, they will serve you and provide help whenever you need it.

The experience is well worth the price and the menu are predetermined so you have no time to wait for the food to be served. You must try it to know just how wonderful an experience this is.

Professor Brawn’s Café

This is a café that has been heavily featured in the media since its opening in 2009. The owner is Roland Tay. This café is inspired by his son, Jun-Yi, who is autistic.

The café mission is to bring awareness to for people suffering from autism and to educate the public about this disability. The café strives to make the difference to the special needs community by hiring people with learning disabilities.

Their signature dish is the fish and chips and you should drop by to see how well trained their servers are.

Soul Food

Soul Food is set up by Gerald Png who is passionate to help young people with special needs a chance to be trained in the F&B industry.

He runs Soul Food as an avenue to train special need young people into restaurant superstars and help them to find their place in society.

The restaurant promises to serve you great tasting food with good service, all done by special needs young people who deserve a chance to be appreciated for who they are.

Joan Bowen Café

Joan Bowen café is opened because of love. Jeanne Seah, the founder of this café is fuelled by the love for her daughter, Joan, who is born with special needs.

This café is opened to help Joan and young people like her, a chance to be independent. The team in this café is entirely made up of special needs young people and they serve up delicious food for all their patrons.

The joyfulness of these servers is evident in their smiles and the way they bounce their way through work.

Food for Thought

Food for Thought is a place where you can be who you really are. There is no pretence in this place as the owners wanted to encourage strangers to meet new friends.

Over here, people bond over food and the environment is perfect for lunch, tea or dinner. Their causes are commendable as well. We can tell that they are proud of it, considering the way they place it prominently on their website

Kerbside Gourmet

Kerbside Gourmet operates a mobile herb garden and kitchen out of a truck named Kerby. Due to its uncommon status as a food truck, Kerby always causes a stir wherever it goes.

The founder Ee Poh Luan is committed to serving the poor and hungry, so whenever you buy a meal from Kerbside Gourmet, a meal will be donated to someone in need.

Breakthrough Café

Freddy Wee is the person in charge of running Breakthrough Café. He has a colourful past as a drug addict and spent time in and out of rehab as well as prison in the 1970s.

Now he is thankful for the second chance that he is given. Freddy shares that the Breakthrough Café hopes to reintegrate former drug addicts by teaching them a skill – making dim sum.

By providing these ex-offenders a skill and a place to work, Breakthrough Café hopes to give them a second chance at life.

Dignity Kitchen

Dignity Kitchen is founded by Koh Seng Choon and Yeo Hiok Keat in 2010 to provide a place for food and a school for people with special needs all at the same time.

The school provides training, employment and job placement to marginalised communities such as people with autism or physical disabilities.

When you eat out there, you are not only helping these people but also contributing to their good cause of delivering food to old folks’ home on weekends.

Top Image: Kerbside Gourmet

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com