hankyoreh

By Lee Kyung-mi, staff reporter

Haru Hope Restaurant is a new kind of place that lets you enjoy a meal to help laid off workers.

Back on March 11, an anonymous 46-year-old rented out an indoor “pojangmacha” (outdoor tent restaurant) in Sangdo, a neighborhood in Seoul’s Dongjak district. The Sangdo Pojangmacha had been run by the wife of Korean Metal Workers’ Union Ssangyong chapter head Kim Jeong-woo, who had been laid off from his job. For that day, a sign went up announcing that the “Haru Hope Restaurant” (“haru” is a Korean word meaning “one day”) was open for business.

The restaurant is open one day a week to offer a helping hand to victims of the Ssangyong layoffs. Guests arrived clueless and left with an understanding of just what the meaning of their meals was.

The Sangdo Pojangmacha has been hanging up the Haru sign every Sunday since.

As word got around, sympathetic restaurant owners happily donated their own premises on holidays. In May, Chunsamwol [Spring March], a Korean multi-course meal restaurant near Seoul’s Hongik University, became Haru’s second branch. A third sprang up at Takjumak, a restaurant in Cheongju’s Sogok neighborhood in North Chungcheong province that specializes in unfiltered makgeolli (Korean rice wine; the restaurant’s name means ‘Makgeoli House’), followed by a fourth at Mapo Restaurant in the Samseong neighborhood of Daejeon.

Now a fifth is set to open its doors on Nov. 4 at the Ttasinbap [Hot Rice Ball] restaurant in Daegu’s Bisan neighborhood.

In each of these cases, the owners are letting out their restaurants on days when they are closed anyway: Sundays in the first, third, and fourth cases, Monday in the second.

The chefs are layoff victims: Ssangyong at the first branch, Cor-tek at the second, YPR at the third. Cooking duties at the fifth will be handles by workers laid off from Daegu Subway. On occasion, student groups and civic groups have volunteered to work in the kitchen and greeted guests. Recently, women from multicultural families have come by and prepared a host of different cuisines, which have been met with a strong response.

Individuals can also apply to work as volunteer servers. The restaurant has sometimes been shorthanded, but shortly after requests were sent out on Twitter, complete strangers came by to help.

The clientele at the Hope Restaurants has consisted of people who want to enjoy a meal for 5,000 won (US$4.60) while being a part of something good. Families have come in groups, and clubs have held lunch meetings there. Some people come for the food and stay to wash dishes. The number of servings per day has gone from 30 in the early days to as many as 150 recently.

In July, the restaurants raised 44 million won (US$40,100), which was passed on periodically to workers laid off from 44 companies nationwide, including Ssangyong, JEI, Cort/Cor-tek, and Daelim Motor.

The founder of the restaurants continues to insist on anonymity.

“When you’re laid off, it isn’t just your income being cut off,” the founder said during an Oct. 22 interview with the Hankyoreh. “Your connection to the world is severed.”

The founder said they began the project to “offer some hope in the lives of people who have tried to put food on the table and ended up someone else’s food.”

To increase awareness, the Hope Restaurants are holding an event on Oct. 26 in conjunction with the Network for a World Without Layoffs and Temporary Workers. Titled “Hope Food Concert: Have a Bite,” it will take place in front of Daehan gate at Deoksu Palace near City Hall. Rice balls and fish cakes go on sale at 4 pm, with a bazaar taking place nearby. The evening is to feature singing performances emceed by film director Byun Young-joo.

“Anyone who thinks layoffs are a bad thing should come by and eat with us,” the founder said.

More details on the participants can be found in the inaugural edition of Na-Deul, the Hankyoreh‘s monthly human-interest magazine. Special inaugural copies will be distributed at the event.

Volunteers are currently being recruited to make rice balls for the concert. Those interested in volunteering or donating should contact the Food Concert planning team at 070-7168-9194.’

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]