Good Samaritan provides thousands of meals in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

For many people living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, uncertainty about the next meal is common. A local man known as Mr. Singh says he is trying to help one person and one meal at a time.

Over the past two months, Singh has distributed home-cooked meals on some of Vancouver’s most vulnerable streets to anyone who wants one. He estimates he has served 15,000 people.

Singh says his long-term goal is to provide one million meals to people in need. He says the effort is about more than food: he and his team ask people how they are doing and try to show care in a community where many feel forgotten.

He says he wants to build awareness that people in the area are not there by choice and are now trapped in their circumstances.

Singh has hired one person full-time to help. Despite offers of financial help, he says he pays for the work himself and has turned down more than $100,000 in donations because that was his goal from the beginning.

His work has gained an online following, but Singh says he does not want recognition. When he removes his mask, he wants to return to an ordinary life. For the thousands of people who have received a meal and compassion, however, his actions are not anonymous.