Vishal Vohra: The Man Who Lends A Helping Hand To The One In Need

Meet Vishal Vohra the owner of Craigieburn Fish and Chips shop who loves cooking and learnt heaps from his mum whom he considers as his guru , he worked as a chef at various restaurants and then took over this fish and chips shop in 2014.  As a business owner, he was doing exactly what other businesses were doing:  buying goods, cooking, selling, paying rent, paying bills, making money and spending that on himself and his family but one day he decided to do his bit for the society. Here’s how, read on to know more:

By Nidhi Kumari

You’ve been involved in serving the community by offering food to the needy for free. What inspired you to offer food to the disadvantaged and needy? Tell us about it.

 Once, I went to the petrol pump which is opposite our shop and I saw a guy sleeping on the side footpath. I filled my petrol but something came in my mind and I asked him, “Are you alright, do you need something to eat”. He replied, “No, I am alright,” but then he asked, if he can have something to eat but he got no money and that he was hungry since last night. I took him to my shop and fed him and told him, in the future as well, if he needs anything, he can come to my shop even for clothing etc.

This incident changed my thinking about people in Craigieburn, as we are busy with our day to day life, we hardly notice these people, who are homeless and less fortunate. Next day, I pasted a post outside my shop that any homeless or less fortunate or if you have no money, can come to my shop and have a free lunch pack.

The blessing of feeding someone hungry is eternal. What do you think?

Blessings help and make big difference in your life, since then our business have grown and locals really appreciating our work.

But, I want to ask other businesses to jump in and help the less fortunate with whatever they can. Small help will make big difference.

 Any other incident/s that you remember that touched your heart when you offered food to someone in need.

We had a regular customer to our shop who was coming to our shop for real small food like 1 potato cake or dimsim. When he noticed he asked me, if he can have something under this and he pointed towards that note. I said yes, of course and he showed me his wallet with no money in it and then very sadly he said few days in a week, I only have 1 potato cake or dimsim in whole day as he got no money at all.

We started this whole campaign in the month of December and for trial we did that for the whole month of December but it became regular. We got appreciation letter from Ros Spence, channel 7 and few other locals, who also offered some donation but we rejected..  Since December 2016 we are doing this everyday and serving on an average 50 people per week from our earnings.

Other story that I want to share is that we are serving food to the guy who is living alone in the house and can’t cook, Centrelink rejected to help him because he is not that sick. But he can hardly walk. Once he came to our shop and we offered him free food and we started talking and then he told me that he is hardly eating from last 7 months since he had an accident. I offered him the food and told him that if he wants to eat, he can come to the shop anytime but after realizing that it’s hard for him to walk I offered him a delivery as well. He calls us now and then and we send him the food to his home for free.

How can anyone who needs help reach out to you?

I am always available if anyone needs any help on 0423786878.