Kiddy Heart Canteen offers affordable nutritious meals to primary school children and their families.
Suet, who comes from a low-income family, bears enormous financial and emotional burden trying to put food on her family’s table. “My husband, who works in the construction industry, has been unemployed since the beginning of the pandemic. My two sons are forced to stay at home during school suspension. The four of us had a lot of conflicts while being trapped in the same household, I was on the edge of having an emotional breakdown.”
It was at this moment when Suet got in contact with Kiddy Heart Canteen via her friend’s referral. Other than helping to lessen her financial burdens of buying food, this also allowed herself to get out of the household temporarily, and to feel the care and warmth from interacting with the community again.
Kiddy Heart Canteen was co-founded by Maxim’s Group and Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service in 2013. Ten years passed with a blink of an eye and this would not be sustainable without the kind hearted support from different organizations. Maxim’s Group’s food assistance has helped Kiddy Heart Canteen’s continuity and development.
Carey, the Project Manager of Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service said, “Kiddy Heart Canteen does not only provide children from low-income families a meal, but also creates a small community for them. Children could finish their homework, read, and play after eating in the canteen. We also have volunteer tutors to help with their studies. No matter children or parents, they could all meet new friends in the canteen. By conversing and supporting each other, they gain the strength to move on.”
Kiddy Heart Canteen is not only fulfilling its food assistance purpose, but offering care and warmth as a friend, or even as a family. Carey said, “Volunteers from Maxim’s would give us rice dumplings and mooncakes during festive times like Dragon Boat Festival and Mid Autumn Festival. They would also make big birthday cakes and hold birthday parties for children. It is like families and food friends bonding with each other.”
When asking Suet what is her most unforgettable moment in all of Kiddy Heart Canteen’s activities, she said, “It is like a mini trip every time when I take my two sons to Kiddy Heart Canteen by bus. My sons are always cheerful. It is the happiest thing as a mother to see my sons look out from the bus window and have the purest smiles on their faces.”
From the darkest times, to being able to embrace the sweetness in life, a meal brings in an unimaginably powerful strength. From a canteen to being companions and a small community, no matter if it is volunteers or families, they all share joy, and bear sweetness and bitterness in life without reservations.