Bellerive Indian restaurant serves free vegetarian lunches every Thursday #togetherfortassie

Bellerive restaurateur Jarnail “Jimmy” Singh is cooking up a free vegetarian feast for the community once a week. Find out when and where you can pick up one of his tasty meals.

Jarnail Singh of Dawat Indian Restaurant has been preparing free vegetarian meals. Picture: LUKE BOWDEN

BUSINESS might be down, but an Eastern Shore Indian restaurant’s kitchen is still firing on all cylinders producing free vegetarian meals.

Jarnail “Jimmy” Singh, of Bellerive restaurant Dawat the Invitation, initially began cooking for health workers but has decided to extend the weekly initiative community-wide during the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Singh and his team recently delivered 75 meals to staff at the Royal Hobart Hospital emergency department.

“These guys are doing a great job for the community so this was my way of giving something back,” he said.

Every Thursday Mr Singh is now providing free vegetarian meals that can be picked up outside his restaurant at 122 Cambridge Rd.

The food will be available from noon until it runs out.

Mr Singh said while his aim was to help people struggling financially, the offer was open to everyone in the community.

“I wanted to do something for people who can’t afford food. They are all vegetarian dishes and we will do different things every week,” he said.

“Last week we did 200-plus meals. We cooked 15kg of lentils and we ran out.”

Mr Singh’s generosity comes despite a significant loss of income due to coronavirus restrictions.

He has been forced to reduce his staff to himself and two others.

“Business is really, really down but we are still surviving, we are going OK. We have a very, very good clientele and they keep supporting me,” he said.