This restaurant proves restaurants can feed the homeless and still stay in business.
Kazi Mannan may have grown up in Pakistan in poverty, but that didn't mean his family wasn't doing everything they could to help those in need.
"My mother taught us if we have a little bit extra, we must share and care for others," he explains.
Mannan's family back in Pakistan. Photo courtesy of Mannan.
That lesson stayed with him long after he grew up and moved to Washington D.C. He managed to land a job at a gas station in Northeast D.C., and while he was there, he couldn't help but notice how many homeless people were looking for food in trash cans. As someone who's personally familiar with the struggles of poverty, he felt for them deeply, and knew he must find a way to help.
"I said: 'one day, if I ever have a restaurant, you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to open the door for them.'"
So that's exactly what Mannan did. Once he'd made enough money, he bought a small restaurant at the corner of 11th and K Street NW, just blocks away from the White House. It was decades old and needed work, but to someone who grew up without plumbing or electricity, the endeavor wasn't so daunting.
On the same day he opened his to the public in 2013, Mannan also invited all the homeless people he could find to have a meal there for free. While they were somewhat dubious of his offer at first, when he kept his word and invited them to come back whenever they needed a meal, they embraced his kindness.
Mannan with a homeless man he serves. Photo via Upworthy.
“They’re the nicest people in town," says one homeless man who frequents the restaurant. "They feed us for free and take care of us.”
While it may not sound like a sustainable idea, the restaurant is still open five years later. Last year, they served 16,000 free meals on top of the meals they serve to paying customers.
And they don't just cater to homeless people in the restaurant. If business is slow, they set up a cart out in the park, and invite them to come and eat out there as well.
Mannan's also upping the altruistic ante in other ways, too: He has a goal of increasing the number of free meals they serve to those in need by 6,000 every year from here on out.
"This is my home, and I feel that I should participate in the community," explains Mannan. "Sharing your food with others is a joy."
Photo via Upworthy.
He's not the only one working at the restaurant who feels that way. His brother is helping out as chef, and his oldest son serves there when he's home from college for the holidays. Needless to say, this proclivity for extending a hand to the community is a family trait.
It all comes back to Mannan's mother, who would always provide food and shelter for people in need, even when the family themselves had very little.
When you treat strangers like family, they become family in a way. That idea fuels Mannan everyday to keep his restaurant going.
Learn more about Mannan's story below:
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An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
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Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.