AUSTIN, Texas — At the Korea House restaurant on Anderson Lane in Austin, there’s a line out the door and around the corner.
They’re waiting for a chance to taste Korean cuisine that tastes like it has love in every bite.
"It’s so good,” college student Wilson Chao said. “It’s very flavorful.”
You just can't put a price on food that good. That’s why it’s all free.
Food from a limited menu is actually free all day, every first Wednesday of the month, at Korea House.
“We're trying to do our best to touch someone's heart – to touch their spirit,” Vivian Newton, Korea House’s general manager, said.
Newton said Pok-Cha Kim has owned Korea House for 36 years.
“When she opened, there was no Korean restaurants around in Austin at all,” Newton said.
Newton said Kim is very proud of introducing Korean food to the area and happy to serve.
“She ran the business for her family to survive here,” Newton said. “After all the years has passed, she realized that all this time, we were doing it for ourselves. But from now on, we're going to do it for God's will.”
Money and donations can only go so far, so they're giving back with what they know best.
“Right now, the economy is really bad, so we're thinking a nice, warm meal will help people," Newton said.
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There are more than 177,000 who are food insecure in Travis County, according to Feeding America's data from 2021. That's a 14% food insecurity rate, higher than the national average of 10%.
Newton said it’s their eighth month feeding the community for free. She said they feed an average of 500 to 700 people each month.
"I think it's really sweet of them,” Chao said. “I think it's really generous, and I think it shows the goodness of people."
Chao and his friends have been coming to the free food days every month since the beginning of the semester.
“I’ve seen, like, how food insecurity can be such a huge problem for a lot of people,” Yousef Hassen, a friend of Chao's, said.
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Thor Armbruster said he knows how tough the struggle is.
“It kind of worries me, the food deserts that exist here in Central Texas,” Armbruster said.
Armbruster said he's a disabilities advocate and knows people who live on a fixed income. He said he tells them all to come to Korea House.
“They're really reminding us about how community can come together and support each other,” Armbruster said.
Newton said they don’t want any donations either. She said money that is given usually gets returned. They just want to share the love in their food.
Korea House serves free food every first Wednesday of the month. They have a limited menu to pick from, and they serve from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. and again from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m.