At a time when the hospitality industry has been severally impacted in the Auckland region by the current floods, a young restaurant owner is offering free food to Auckland flood-victims.
The owner of several Indian restaurants in Auckland, Ganesh Chowdary Pulapa, announced yesterday on social media that anyone affected by the devastating floods can collect a free meal at one of the three restaurants between 5pm and 9pm on Wednesday, February 1(today) and Thursday, February 2.
The meal will include either butter chicken or a vegetarian curry, rice, masala fries and a soft drink.
Pulapa’s three restaurants from where the meal can be picked up are: Plan B Lounge in Parnell, Baahubali Pan Indian Restaurant in Mt Albert and Hyderabad Food Garage in Auckland CBD.
Hyderabad Food Garage was opened only in Dec 2022.
“There will be no strings attached, and we won’t charge anything,” Ganesh says.
Unmindful of the damage caused to his own retstaurant by heavy rains, Pulapa is determined to contribute to mitigate the sufferings of others.
“We have suffered a little damage and leakage to our restaurants, but it is nothing compared to what some people have suffered. We are considered lucky,” Ganesh said.
“We know some people have lost their homes, their kitchen and everything, so how can they cook?”
Owner, Ganesh Pulapa, 29, is originally from India’s East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. He came to New Zealand on a student visa in 2015, and was motivated to start his own restaurant after working for a short time at a popular Indian restaurant in Sandringham.
Several voluntary agencies are already in the forefront of distributing food parcels to victims affected by floods, but this initiative of a young restaurateur is being hailed by many on social media.
The full impact of the Auckland flooding on food security has yet to be felt, with the remainder of the North Island food outlets bracing for extra supply chain stresses, as the call goes out to redistribute to affected population areas. This is no time for the banning of single-use plastic containers nor the greenwashing of eco-warriors. The environmental impact of flood relief must be offset against global climate emissions on the back foot.