12.02.2020

The ‘Give Food’ project has started trying out a new format for charity dinners. Elderly people from Moscow will be able to dine for free in restaurants and cafes. 

‘Haute Cuisine from Simple Products’ is the name and main principle of the project. All dishes are prepared from the usual ingredients but served beautifully and with a sense of festivity. The main thing is to create an atmosphere of celebration for the elderly.  

“The problem for our pensioners is not only that they can’t afford to go to a restaurant on their small pension. Often our old people, especially lonely ones, put a burden on themselves, limiting their circle of communication and literally spending their days in front of the TV or outside sitting on the benches by their flat entrances. We want to change this and help older people socialise and start to enjoy their lives again”, explains Igor Shatunov, the project’s founder. 

The restaurant’s chef draws up a menu for the charitable dinner in advance, and then the project Give Food buys and delivers the products. 

Two charity dinners have already taken place in the centre of Moscow, attended by 30 pensioners, who are Trustees of the Give Food project. The special menu included potato waffles with eggplant caviar, beef shank with bulgur wheat, and apple strudel with ice cream for dessert.

Now the Give Food project is looking for new partners – restaurants, cafes and chefs across Russia. 

However, this is not the first time that charity dinners for the elderly have been held. Private restaurants have themselves already organised events. The Phali-Khinkali restaurant in St Petersburg, for example, invited 40 people supported by the Long and Happy Foundation to a charity dinner in January 2020.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2020/02/12/v-moskve-provodiat-blagotvoritelnie-obedi/