ilkkan güler
Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University
Semih Ceyhan
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Istanbul Bay Restaurant gives all food that they could not sell during the day to homeless people. Also, they give free soup every morning in Ramadan (which is a celebration for Muslims), customers can donate money to the restaurant and this money directly goes to the homeless people. Owner of the restaurant started to do this alone but he has 8 more followers now which are helping homeless people with Seyran’s way. This aid reduces the percentage of hungry people in the area that they serve.
Istanbul bay restaurant has provided a quite innovative solution to wasting food. By giving food which cooked but they could not sell to the customers to homeless people, they support UN goal number 2, No Hunger. Also, they have been successful in being a pioneer in helping homeless people; other restaurants in the same area started to helping homeless people in the same way.
Seyran, the owner of Istanbul Bay Restaurant, was a poor but hard worker teenager. He was working in a restaurant in Brooklyn. Every night before closing the restaurant, he collected all the food which were not sold, eating them at home and also giving the rest of the food to homeless people. He is a good Muslim and in his religion wasting food is one of the worst things ever because he believes that the food which we are throwing away can be something blessing for other people. After he opened his own restaurant, he was intended to help homeless people.
The aid started with only one restaurant at the beginning. This aid had changed the attitude of homeless people over others, and other 3 more restaurants around the same area started to do this aid as well. All these restaurants’ revenue was increasing because people started to choose them over other restaurants that do not help. After some time, all 8 restaurants in the same area started the help homeless people as Istanbul Bay did. Istanbul Bay was the first one who helped homeless people but they are not the only one right now. They started a new trend to help people and the number of restaurants who helps homeless people is increasing each day.
Helping homeless people is contributing to society but at the same time, it is a remarkable advertisement method to increase the number of customers and earning a competitive advantage over other restaurants. When people see that the restaurant helps homeless people, they want to be involved with going there as a customer and it gives the restaurant a positive advantage over other restaurants around. Also, when the restaurant wants to add new food on the menu, they first ask homeless people to take their ideas before launching the food and considering their feedback, and then decide if they should launch the food or not.
Helping homeless people by giving them food and money, reduces the environmental pollution caused by wasting food and people who donate money feel that they are contributed to society’s problem. As a result of the aid, people changed their perception about homeless people also homeless people changed their perception about others. In conclusion, a friendly atmosphere has been created with homeless people around the restaurant. On the other hand, most of the homeless people have huge life experience and people who are working in a restaurant has a chance to chat with them and expand their perception of life.
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Istanbul Bay restaurant was founded by Seyran who knows how to feel being hunger and the importance of helping people. The restaurant is located in Brooklyn, NYC. The area where the restaurant located has a bit amount of homeless people. Fortunately, Seyran is aware of the fact that every people should struggle against poverty as much as they can. He cannot change the world with his own but he can start to begin this from himself.