By CARLOS RUBEN DOURADO
brats@thestar.com.my

MANY were left baffled last week when news broke about the ban on soup kitchens in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said soup kitchens would no longer be allowed to operate within a 2km radius of Lot 10, which mind you, covers many of the areas in the city where soup kitchens usually operate.

During a press conference last Thursday, Tengku Adnan added that soup kitchens encourage people to remain homeless and jobless. “There have been many such people whom we have found jobs for, who returned to that life because they said it is easier,” he said.

Personally, I’ve volunteered at a soup kitchen before, and the most heart-breaking thing I learnt there was that most of the people coming to us weren’t homeless. They turn to soup kitchens simply because of the extreme poverty they live in.

I had a conversation with one such person as he was having his meal, and he told me that before the soup kitchen, he would go for days on end without eating, because he’d save whatever food he could buy for his wife and child.

Emotionally, it was an online casino overwhelming experience for me; but physically, it was also a lot of hard work. We had to prepare and pack up food for a seemingly endless line of people. We also travelled to several locations to distribute the food.

It takes a lot of dedication to be a soup kitchen volunteer. Most people would feel they don’t have the time or energy to do it, but I decided to give it a shot anyway, and it totally changed my perspective on life.

It made me realise just how much we take for granted the things we have in life. It’s hard to truly appreciate what we have, until we see how grateful others would be just to have a fraction of it.

So, the next time you sit down for a meal, think of all the people out there who aren’t as fortunate as you. Be grateful for what you have.

But more importantly, go volunteer at a soup kitchen, wherever it may be. Trust me: being able to put a smile on those people’s faces will surely put one on yours, too.

The writer is a member of the BRATs young journalist programme. For more info, go to facebook.com/starbrats.