Coffee fix: KL cafe hopes to power medical staff with free coffee during MCO
CORONAVIRUS | A cafe in Bukit Jalil is offering 80 free cups of coffee for health workers every day during the movement control order (MCO), despite itself experiencing drastically depleting sales.
Starting from March 23, New Chapter by the Owls brews cups of joe fresh each day and passes them to the Islamic Medical Association Malaysia (IMARET) to be distributed to medical frontliners who work day and night handling Covid-19 cases and also to other medical staff.
New Chapter barista Jase Chu Jin Cheng told Malaysiakini they were hoping to contribute during the medical crisis and were approached by another restaurant to join a programme aimed at helping hospital staff by providing food and beverages.
Every evening, members of Imaret wait at certain points to collect food from different restaurants...
CORONAVIRUS | A cafe in Bukit Jalil is offering 80 free cups of coffee for health workers every day during the movement control order (MCO), despite itself experiencing drastically depleting sales.
Starting from March 23, New Chapter by the Owls brews cups of joe fresh each day and passes them to the Islamic Medical Association Malaysia (Imaret) to be distributed to medical frontliners who work day and night handling Covid-19 cases and also to other medical staff.
New Chapter barista Jase Chu Jin Cheng told Malaysiakini they were hoping to contribute during the medical crisis and were approached by another restaurant to join a programme aimed at helping hospital staff by providing food and beverages.
Every evening, members of Imaret wait at certain points to collect food from different restaurants before sending them to several medical centres, including Ampang Hospital, Petaling district health office and Titiwangsa district health office.
“We had hoped to do something during this critical time. We ordered a lot of milk just before the MCO, but our sales dropped sharply,” he said.
The cafe usually sells around 200 to 300 cups a day, but orders have dropped to just 50 a day due to the MCO, the duration of which was just extended.
“We don’t know how long the MCO will last, so instead of waiting for someone to order coffee, it was better for us to give them to others who need it.
“The medical staff must be tired from working the night shift and may need a coffee fix. That's all we can do.”
The MCO, announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, began on March 18 and is now slated to end on April 14.
Narrating his experience when it was his turn to deliver the coffee to the dropping point, Jase said he never expected the reaction he received from Imaret staff.
Upon seeing him, the Imaret personnel who had come to receive the food had asked, "is this the coffee? The hospital staff are all waiting for it."
Jase said he was deeply touched by the response.
He said: “Compared to getting a lot of sales, being able to supply what someone else needs, and know they are happy with it, is an invaluable satisfaction that money can't buy.”
According to Jase, after reading about New Chapter’s experience with the programme on social media, friends, who temporarily closed their businesses during the MCO, started to sponsor milk to New Chapter.
First coffee run
In fact, the cafe’s bid to help hospital staff actually started even before they joined the Imaret programme.
New Chapter had delivered coffee to the emergency counter at Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) when the MCO was first imposed.
"I heard from my friend that the hospital canteen also reduced its staff, and most of the restaurants nearby will be closed. However, the hospital will be busier than usual now, so we wondered if we could provide something.
“We sent about 20 cups of coffee to the HKL emergency counter, and the guard was a bit shocked at first when they saw us.
“But we explained to him that our material suppliers were halal-certified, so he could receive the coffee.”
Jase said the cafe plans to keep helping frontliners in the best way they know how - with coffee - for as long as the MCO is being implemented.
However, the sombre reality is that the long duration of the MCO and reduced sales have brought more problems, such as difficulties in procuring adequate supplies of paper cups.
"Coffee consumes a lot of paper cups, and it is difficult to order paper cups at the moment.
"We will do this as long as we can, and if we can't, we'll ask our friends for help,” said Jase.
Even so, Malaysiakini is told New Chapter is also trying to make the most of a bad situation of the Covid-19 crisis by developing a new delivery model.
Jase explained that they are currently looking into the details such as packaging and delivery distances.
“Our boss is very optimistic, he feels that while this crisis has affected the business, it has also brought something positive.”
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