ABOUT DIGNITY KITCHEN HK
Who are Dignity Kitchen? What do they do? Why are we working with them? Your questions are answered in this article below.
ABOUT DIGNITY KITCHEN HK
Dignity Kitchen is one of the many organizations that focus and bring light on the issues of inequality between the fully abled and the differently abled. Recently, this issue has drawn more attention, and is gradually being recognized as a subject that we need to take action on. Dignity Kitchen is a Singaporean Restaurant located in both Singapore and HK, that aims to inform the public about the needs of differently abled people through being a social enterprise. Being a social enterprise is a sustainable and self-sufficient way of generating change and equity through the revenue they gain. They also prove that running a business and doing social good can go hand in hand, and that the differently abled can be in a workplace rather than just a centre. Dignity Kitchen provides volunteering opportunities, in a long term goal to strive for a more accepting and embracing society. Further, 90% of their staff are differently abled, with restaurant machinery and devices designed to their abilities, such as electric pots to minimize injuries.
Dignity Kitchen is a great organization that you should definitely consider volunteering at. They are open from Monday to Saturday, with a time slot dedicated for volunteers - from 2 to 5. Dignity Kitchen offers opportunities such as bento box packing and distributing for the homeless people around Mong Kok. They also provide masks with the boxes, and mask packing is one of the activities that you can get involved in. As you can tell, their events and projects are not only beneficial to their organization and staff, but it also helps others in need! Simply having a meal at Dignity Kitchen is of significant help to Dignity Kitchen, because the money they earn from sales goes into the advocacy for equality and justice for the differently abled, along with training more differently abled workers.
Based on our primary research and first-hand experiences with Dignity Kitchen, we have understood their goal and mission for a fairer society for the differently abled. In order to have a deeper knowledge on the issue, we spoke with Hannah and Ming, both staff at Dignity Kitchen. They were amazing people and helped us out a lot with our research, and took the time to explain to us what Dignity Kitchen wanted to achieve. As a short term goal, they aim to extend their brand into more locations and start several projects that are related to the enterprise. This is to further promote the equality and fair treatment of the differently abled as they face all sorts of discrimination around Hong Kong. This includes restaurants not accommodating wheelchairs, not having a differently abled restroom around the city, and not enough job openings for them… As for their long-term goal, Dignity Kitchen aims to bring more differently abled workers into the workplace, acting as a stepping stone for the differently abled to work in other fields such as restaurants, offices and even hotels. After all, they are as equal as the fully-abled, but only with different abilities. We have a social responsibility to treat them equally, in a way that is fair and non-discriminatory.