Outreach

We really have a passion for our local community and making a human connection with everyone we meet. We hope to be able to make a difference through our business in the lives of our local community and those in need around us. Often times, we have a surplus of sauces and other products in our inventory. It would be a shame to let any of this wonderful food go to waste. That is why we have been reaching out to local homeless shelters, food pantries, and community organizations such as:

Cherokee Point Elementary School - San Diego, CA

Rescue Mission Alliance - Oxnard, CA

Please let us know if you know of an organization that could benefit from our donations. Thank you for helping us reach out and make a difference.

 

Basu's HomeStyle at Cherokee Point Elementary School, San Diego

Godwin Higa is the Principal of Cherokee Point Elementary School in San Diego. I have known Godwin for over 25 years. We were catching up at a BBQ recently. During that conversation, he was describing to me some of the challenges he faces as the Principal of an elementary school attended by children whose families come from the lowest economic strata of the area. He said one of the major challenges these families have today is not having enough food for a hearty meal. To address this issue, Godwin collects various food donations from local food banks and distributes food to these families every week. Since Basu’s Homestyle has a community outreach program where we donate food to various food banks and soup kitchens, we offered to bring some of our products to the school for distribution to the families of these children on Friday, October 16, 2009.

Robin and I  picked up approximately 1,000 lbs each of Chana Dal and Saffron Rice and headed towards San Diego on Friday morning. We arrived at the school around 1:30 PM. Godwin was waiting for us as we arrived. Since the families were going to stop by to pick up the food donation when school ended at 2:00 PM, we had a few minutes to kill. Godwin took us to a few of the classrooms and introduced us to the children, who were mostly about 8-9 years old. Even though the kids come from poor families, the school is brand new, the classrooms are beautiful, and the children were all well-dressed, bright-eyed, and bright-faced. Since we don’t have the opportunity to visit too many schools, seeing the state of the school was most heartening. One thing I thought was amusing, as we went from classroom to classroom, is that Godwin introduced us to the class and then asked how many of them ever had Indian Food, and about 10 of 18 hands went up. It surprised us because these kids did not come from ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds that I would have expected to have had Indian Food before. As I saw the same scene repeat in most of the classrooms we visited, the conclusion I came to is that the kids wanted to please Mr. Higa.

Food distribution took place without a hitch. We had more food than we needed. Godwin said he had another parent event the next day where another 400 parents would be coming and he would distribute the rest of the food to those families. We came back home with a little smile on our face.

 

Basu’s Homestyle at the Ventura County Rescue Mission, Oxnard

We here at Basu’s Homestyle Indian Cuisine have been donating food to various worthwhile organizations for the last few years. In the process of donating some of our products to the Oxnard Rescue Mission, we came across Chef Thomas Yun, who left a lucrative career as Executive Chef of a respected steakhouse to become the resident Chef and teacher at the Rescue Mission. His story inspired us, so we thought we’d share it with you.

The Joy of Cooking - Chef Thomas Yun