Category: Seva Cafe

At the front of the Seva Cafe is a box full of money.  The box is left unattended, sometimes left wide open.  The box is never locked.  In front of the box is a note with a reminder: “Feel free to take money or leave money for the purpose of conducting acts of kindness”. 

7 weeks ago, we started with $15 in the box.  Despite concerns that leaving an open box with money was dangerous, we now have approximately $125 inside that box.  What’s more is that every week, we encourage someone to reach into the box, take money out and go out and do some good with it.  Most folks are at best intimidated by this notion.  Feeling the burden of the intentions of the original donors can be a bit too much to handle.  None-the-less some folks take the challenge and put the funds (and others’ good intentions) to use.  Every now and then we hear stories of how the funds were used, sometime we even get some photographs.  Below is how Manuri used some of the funds around the globe:

Share the Love Box funds donated at a Temple in Hong Kong.

Donated in Sri Lanka.

Donated to an all girl’s orphanage (25 girls) in Sri Lanka.  These are the kids that parents didn’t want or they were found walking around on the streets of Sri Lanka alone.  I took dinner to them with desert and all…. 2nd day I went back to see them again to give them photos I printed of them.  That time I took ice cream.  But…..  not a single kid went after the ice cream.  They all hung on to me full of smiles.  Can you believe that?  Little kids not going after ice cream?  I realized they need our TIME more than anything else in the world.  None of the food I took mattered much.  Time and love was all they needed. 

    
All boy’s orphanage that needed mats and dry food in Sri Lanka.

Still have $6 to spend in Thailand and Cambodia…

Revised: More from Thailand:

      

 

Sukh

(On August 21, the Long Beach Gazette published an article about the Seva Cafe. The article was written by Kurt Helin, an editor for the Long Beach Gazette, who was a guest at the Seva Cafe. The article is provided below or you can log on to http://gazettes.com/mystyle.html )

It’s About Giving, One Meal At A Time

By Kurt Helin
Editor

“Give your hands to serve and your heart to love.” —Mother Theresa

Seva Café is more of a leap of faith than a restaurant.

It’s as much about the servers as the served, about giving not paying. Making money is not the goal, acts of kindness are — you don’t even pay for your own meal.

A person who dined there earlier has already made a donation to pay for your meal, as a gift. You have the chance to continue that circle of giving for a person you have never met who will come in later.

Could such an open-minded, non-Western concept take root in Long Beach? » Read more