Foodservice lends fund-raising muscle to tsunami relief efforts: worst natural disaster in 30 years prompts unprecedented aid response

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 17, 2005 by Jack Hayes

Apart from the relatively minor business interruption costs for affected chains, it will take, by even conservative estimates, billions of dollars to accomplish the most basic relief and recovery work needed to resuscitate the traumatized region, which spans the coastal borders of two continents for a distance of 3,000 miles.

United Nations officials in charge of emergency relief were estimating that 700,000 Sri Lankans and more than a million Indonesians would continue to need food assistance.

Meanwhile, chefs and operators around the world, like those in America, are continuing to host charity events to aid the estimated 5 million people left without homes, food and water.

Bangladesh-born chef-operator Tommy Miah, who operates Raj Restaurant in Leith, Scotland, put himself and his staff at auction to cook a meal anywhere in the world for up to 1,000 guests, with profits targeted to aid the tsunami victims.

Meanwhile, in Musselburgh, Scotland, two Thai operators, Yongyut Suayngam of Lanna and Kittisake Sakeow of Chaing Mai, pledged all profits from their tsunami dinners to a disaster fund.

Ho Kwon Ping, a major player in the Asian foodservice and hospitality industry and head of the Singapore-based Banyan Tree group, pledged to help recovering Indonesian and Sri Lankan operators after urgent humanitarian needs have been satisfied.

"When the aid agencies finish their work and move on, there will be a whole range of new challenges for these communities," Ho said. "We now have a responsibility to help those who strive to regain normalcy."

Nine of Banyan Tree's coastal resorts were damaged, but losses for property and business interruption were insured and would be recovered, said Ho, who holds an honorary degree from Johnson & Wales University. "We had no loss of life among guests or staff," he added. "But entire communities near us have been wiped out, and the aftermath, even as it recedes from TV and newspaper headlines, is painful."

Indian-American foodservice executive Rohini Anand, chief diversity officer for Sodexho, e-mailed the MFHA's Fernandez an early report on the devastation from India via a wireless computer.

"The magnitude of the tragedy is unimaginable, and it will take a long time to rebuild this part of the world," Anand said.

Meanwhile, operators in the United States, aligned with leaders across the entire business sector, continued to respond generously.

West Hollywood, Calif.,-based Barney's Beanery and its sister concept, Barney's Beanery West in Santa Monica, pledged 25 percent of dinner receipts from Monday, Jan. 10, to the American Red Cross.

"We felt it was important to do our share," Barney's co-owner David Houston said. "All of our staff and guests have been painfully aware of the devastation."

On the East Coast 10 Baltimore area operators, all members of the Little Italy Restaurant Association, or LIRA, joined in a Jan. 12 Dine Out for Disaster fund-raiser, donating 10 percent of the price of every meal to support the Red Cross' International Response Fund.