A local Italian restaurant located just a stone’s throw away from Penhryn Road campus is offering free lunch on Christmas day for students who are alone during the holidays and all people spending Christmas by themselves in Kingston.
Vini, the manager of the restaurant Il Sapore, got the idea after seeing a heart-breaking German Christmas advert of a man eating alone on Christmas day.
Vini said: “I could not believe my own eyes. It made me nostalgic because it made me think of my own father and my own family who is away.
“This free lunch is a way for people to be together and to enjoy each other’s company on this special day.”
The advert Vini is referring to shows an older man having several Christmas dinners alone, after his children continuously made excuses not to come home for Christmas.
The restaurant will prepare meat and fish dishes and will offer some drinks, and welcomes students, as well as homeless people, to this special event.
Vini said: “I wanted to do something nice for people who are alone here in Kingston on Christmas day.”
Il Sapore also have a service where customers can pay in advance for homeless people. A customer can prepay for a coffee or a meal, and when a homeless person comes in they can have it for free.