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LONDON — They may not celebrate Christmas, but the Muslim owners of a London restaurant want to make sure those without a home have a place to go on Dec. 25.
Shish Restaurant is known for its authentic Turkish cuisine, but now it’s making headlines for something a little different, according to The Huffington Post.
The restaurant will be offering a free three-course meal to homeless and elderly diners on Christmas. While a sign advertising the effort hangs on Shish’s front door, it really began to gain traction once it made an appearance on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
“No one eats alone on Christmas Day!” the sign reads. “We are here to sit with you.”
Thousands of people have been touched by the restaurant’s kindness — the Facebook post had more than 3,400 shares and more than 160 comments as of Wednesday morning.
Word didn’t stop there. On Twitter, a post featuring a picture of the flyer had more than 17,700 likes and over 12,600 retweets as of Wednesday morning.
A Muslim owned restaurant in London is ensuring 'no 1 eats alone on Christmas day' by offering free meals to homeless people and the elderly pic.twitter.com/M0CrKFnIj9
— Jamilla (@JamillaTweets) December 4, 2016
“This wasn’t done in order for us to be known around,” the restaurant wrote in a Facebook post in response to the praise. “We are doing this for the community ... It’s time for us to come together to stand up for each other.” The Shish team hopes to get a big turnout on Christmas Day and wrote on Facebook it has plans to start a program that would provide free meals for the needy once a month if the event is a success.
“We’re just helping people,” Shish employee Hasan Masud told BuzzFeed. “They can come here and have some fun.”
The flyer offers a peek at the Christmas Day menu: those who show up for the feast will be able to dine on soup, vegetarian and chicken casseroles and rice pudding for dessert.
