Jaden Smith to Open a Vegan Restaurant Where Houseless People Can Eat for Free
The “I Love You” restaurant will provide free, plant-based meals to the unhoused population of Los Angeles.
Entertainment artist and entrepreneur, Jaden Smith, is planning to launch the I Love You restaurant to offer free, vegan meals for people experiencing homelessness in Los Angeles.
Smith, the son of actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, first debuted the "I Love You" food truck in 2019 to deliver free plant-based meals to the houseless community of Los Angeles' Skid Row before moving on to New York City.
Now, the eat-for-free concept is evolving into a brick-and-mortar permanent eatery, with the full details of the location and menu to be announced. “I Love You Restaurant is a movement that is all about giving people what they deserve—healthy, vegan food for free,” said Smith.
Although anyone can order from the I Love You Restaurant, those who are able to pay for their meals will be expected to ‘pay it forward’, to provide a free meal for somebody who can’t afford it.
“It’s for homeless people to get free food. But if you’re not homeless, not only do you have to pay, but you have to pay for more than the food’s worth so that you can pay for the person behind you,” Smith explained.
This isn’t the first of Smith’s philanthropic efforts. When residents of the Michigan town of Flint struggled to get clean drinking water between 2014 - 2019, Smith donated profits generated from his sustainable water company, JUST Water, to install water filtration systems around the city. He is also heading 501CTHREE.org's Water Box project - recently included in New Balance's new video campaign, We Got Now - to help provide access to clean, safe water to communities.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.