<h1 style="color: rgb(73, 80, 96); font-family: 굴림, gulim, tahoma, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">In this soup kitchen, a Korean believes helping poor Pinoys starts with giving them fish first</h1><p style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(73, 80, 96); line-height: 19px; font-family: 굴림, gulim, tahoma, sans-serif; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="date-byline">By: <b>InterAksyon.com with video report by Laila Chikadora, News5</b><br>March 24, 2015 10:09 PM </span></p><div class="photo-cont" style="color: rgb(73, 80, 96); line-height: 19px; font-family: 굴림, gulim, tahoma, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div id="main-image-wrap" style="line-height: 1.6;"><img name="target_resize_image[]" style="cursor: pointer;" src="https://img1.daumcdn.net/relay/cafe/original/?fname=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com%2Fassets%2Fimages%2Farticles%2Finterphoto_1427204583.png"></div><div class="photo-caption" style="line-height: 1.6;">Korean soup kitchen owner Sye Young Nam joins Filipino children during mealtime at the Dandelion Noodle House in Caloocan City. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO </div></div><p style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(73, 80, 96); line-height: 19px; font-family: 굴림, gulim, tahoma, sans-serif; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"></p><div class="article-details" style="color: rgb(73, 80, 96); line-height: 19px; font-family: 굴림, gulim, tahoma, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><div style="margin: 0px 5px 10px 0px; line-height: 1.6;"><div style="width: 190px; line-height: 1.6; float: left;"><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com%2Farticle%2F107596%2Fin-this-soup-kitchen-a-korean-believes-helping-poor-pinoys-starts-with-giving-them-fish-first&width&layout=button_count&action=recommend&show_faces=false&share=true&height=21&appId=229065707141888" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" style="border: currentcolor; height: 21px; overflow: hidden; border-image-source: none;"></iframe></div><div class="clear-both" style="line-height: 1.6;"></div><div style="width: 70px; line-height: 1.6; float: left;"><div id="___plusone_0" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 90px; height: 20px; line-height: normal; font-size: 1px; vertical-align: baseline; float: none; display: inline-block; background-image: none;"><iframe name="I0_1427207500715" width="100%" tabindex="0" title="+1" id="I0_1427207500715" src="https://apis.google.com/se/0/_/+1/fastbutton?usegapi=1&size=medium&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com%2Farticle%2F107596%2Fin-this-soup-kitchen-a-korean-believes-helping-poor-pinoys-starts-with-giving-them-fish-first&gsrc=3p&jsh=m%3B%2F_%2Fscs%2Fapps-static%2F_%2Fjs%2Fk%3Doz.gapi.ko._McTVOSQ_7U.O%2Fm%3D__features__%2Fam%3DMQ%2Frt%3Dj%2Fd%3D1%2Ft%3Dzcms%2Frs%3DAGLTcCPjOhMSrk2X02pNpDDDlbUZRUaXvQ#_methods=onPlusOne%2C_ready%2C_close%2C_open%2C_resizeMe%2C_renderstart%2Concircled%2Cdrefresh%2Cerefresh&id=I0_1427207500715&parent=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com&pfname=&rpctoken=25458942" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" vspace="0" hspace="0" data-gapiattached="true" style="margin: 0px; left: 0px; top: 0px; width: 90px; height: 20px; visibility: visible; position: static;"></iframe></div></div><div style="width: 75px; line-height: 1.6; float: left;"><iframe title="Twitter Tweet Button" class="twitter-share-button twitter-tweet-button twitter-share-button twitter-count-horizontal" id="twitter-widget-0" src="http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.969b16495674bbe6e2f655caeedb071c.en.html#_=1427207495395&count=horizontal&dnt=false&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com%2Farticle%2F107596%2Fin-this-soup-kitchen-a-korean-believes-helping-poor-pinoys-starts-with-giving-them-fish-first&size=m&text=In%20this%20soup%20kitchen%2C%20a%20Korean%20believes%20helping%20poor%20Pinoys%20starts%20with%20giving%20them%20fish%20first&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.interaksyon.com%2Farticle%2F107596%2Fin-this-soup-kitchen-a-korean-believes-helping-poor-pinoys-starts-with-giving-them-fish-first" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowtransparency="true" data-twttr-rendered="true" style="width: 107px; height: 20px;"></iframe></div><div class="clear-both" style="line-height: 1.6;"></div></div><div class="clear-both" style="line-height: 1.6;"></div><p class="lnk-label" style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;"><a style="color: rgb(73, 80, 96); text-decoration: none;" href="http://www.interaksyon.com/" target="_blank"><u><font color="#0066cc">InterAksyon.com</font></u></a><br>The online news portal of TV5</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">MANILA, Philippines - Food-loving Filipinos eat five to six times a day before and after work. But not the Mendez family of Third Avenue, Caloocan City.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Fifty eight-year-old Miguela Mendez, who sells bananas for a living, says it takes them one whole day to raise money to buy food that’s only good for one meal.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">“<em>Dalawang kilo ng bigas, kalahating kilo ng galunggong. Pito kaming kakain, pagkakasyahin na lang sa isang araw. Pag wala nang natira sa gabi, itutulog na lang ang gutom,</em>” says Mendez, a widow and mother of three, who helps feed her three grandchildren ages nine and 12.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">[Two kilos of rice, half a kilo of round scad. Seven people will share the food and make it last for the day. If nothing is left at night, we will just still the pangs of hunger by sleeping.]</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Jocelyn Gruezo, 41, and her family suffer the same plight. The income that she and her husband get as laundrywoman and part-time driver respectively, isn’t enough to feed their four children ages 17, 11, 8, and 4.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">"'<em>Yan ang iniisip at pinagkaka-abalahan namin araw-araw, kung paano makakabili ng sapat na pagkain. Mahirap mag-isip kung walang laman ang t’yan</em>,” says Gruezo, a resident of Barangay 31 also in Caloocan.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">[That’s what we think about and work on everyday, how to be able to buy enough food. It’s hard to think when your stomach is empty.]</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Mendez and her grandchildren and Gruezo and her children are among the frequent diners in a soup kitchen at the back of the city’s La Loma Catholic Cemetery.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">The soup kitchen called Mindeule Guksujib or Dandelion Noodle House was founded by 61-year-old Sye Young Nam, a former Catholic friar-turned-layman from South Korea.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Sye Young is known in his country for establishing 12 years ago a similar meal center in Incheon City for his less fortunate countrymen. The soup kitchen has expanded and now also gives food rations to some 30 Filipina wives victimized by domestic abuse in Korea and houses a study facility for children who can’t afford private tutorials.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Sye Young’s kitchen soup in Caloocan that also serves as a day care center for kids six years old and below, feeds about 130 children. It is among the three meal centers that Sye Young, fondly called Mr. Peter by his Filipino friends, established in the Philippines in 2013. The other two are in the cities of Malabon and Navotas that each feeds around 60 children.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Even the parents and grandparents of the children are welcomed by Sye Young in his soup kitchens. He serves them food and treats them like friends and members of his own family, who also helps him in operating the meal centers in Korea and in the Philippines.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;"><iframe width="462" height="293" src="http://news5.com.ph/embed.aspx?g=244DDC465C30410" style="border: 0px currentcolor; border-image-source: none;"></iframe></p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Mr. Peter, who was a Catholic monk for 25 years and is connected with the Abbey Monastery in South Korea, says he fell in love with the Philippines and its people when he first visited the country in 1988 to work on a two-year project with Radio Veritas.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Sye Young also saw what other foreigners observed about Filipinos. “Many of them are optimistic even though they are poor. Other people are rich but they lack the spirit that Filipinos have. “</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">When he went back to the Philippines and coordinated with the local dioceses to establish the soup kitchens, Mr. Peter says he was determined to help poor but hopeful Filipinos by spreading a philosophy that deconstructs the proverb, “Give a man fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">“I say, give the man and woman fish first so they will have the energy to find their own fish. It’s hard to work when a person is hungry. How can children effectively participate in class if they have nothing in their stomach? If people spend the whole day looking for food, how can they do other productive things?” explains Mr. Peter.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Contributions that Sye Young gets for his soup kitchens consist of goods and small amounts of money that mostly come from average joes or ordinary Koreans who support Mr. Peter’s philosophy of helping the poor.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Sye Young says he does not accept contributions from rich people fearing that their assistance could only lead to self-promotion. He likewise shuns donation drives and the formation of supporters’ group as well as receiving government subsidy.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">“There’s humility in giving just like how Jesus helps people. It’s the kind of giving that changes the hearts of both the giver and the receiver,” says Sye Young.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Like a true buddy, Mr. Peter also avoids sounding didactic to the diners in his soup kitchens.</p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">“I avoid giving sermons because no one wants to change when he or she is criticized and feels slighted. The best way to help poor people is to first believe in them, to learn to trust them, and become their true friends,” he says. </p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;">Asked why he names his soup kitchens after dandelions, Mr. Peter says, “It’s a symbol of hope because the flower blossoms even in very dirty areas through seeds blown by the wind. And like the dandelion, I also like to spread hope through my soup kitchens.” </p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;"><strong style="letter-spacing: 0px;">-AR Sabangan, InterAksyon.com</strong></p><p style="margin: 0px; -ms-word-break: normal; -ms-word-wrap: normal;"> </p></div>
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민들레국수집의 특급 사랑나눔이 대단한것에 있는 게 아님을 알겠습니다.
그러나 그 대단치 않다 생각하는 것이 또 그 어느것보다 대단하다는 것도요.
그것은 가장 기본적인 사랑입니다.
이사랑을 깨우치게 해주시는 베베모 가족 사랑합니다.!!!
필리핀의 아이들이 웃을수 있게 해주는 민들레 수사님이 자랑스럽습니다.
어려운 이웃들이 있는 곳이라면 국경도 따지지 않고
다가가 손길을 내미는 민들레 국수집 든든합니다.
아이들을 향한 사랑에 감동하는 민들레 스콜라쉽에 감사드립니다~♥
아이들을 웃게 하고, 가난한 이웃들을 웃게 하는 민들레 국수집의 사랑! 한국인으로써 자랑스럽네요.
행복도 자라고, 아이들도 자라고, 민들레 국수집도 자랍니다.
더 나아지는 필리핀 민들레 국수집을 위하여! 아자! 아자! 파이팅!!
어쩌면 사랑이 천사의 거울인지도 모를 일입니다.
민들레 서영남 대표님과 민들레 모든 봉사자들을 존경하고 사랑합니다.
필리핀의 가난한 아이들을 챙겨주는 사랑의 축제로 헌신하는 삶에서 지금처럼 함께해 주십시오.
필리핀 나눔 감동으로 보았습니다.
아이들도, 아이들의 꿈도, 그 꿈들을 지켜주는
필리핀 민들레 국수집도 무럭무럭 자라나길....
서영남대표님 베로니카님 수고 많으십니다.