SACRAMENTO, Calif. — An up-and-coming plant-based Vietnamese restaurant was robbed last week, and the community has rallied together to help.
When the chef and founder of Chay Corner, Brandon Dinh, opened the back of his food truck to prepare for a pop-up event later that day, he quickly realized everything was gone.
"I was in just shock and disbelief because nothing was in there," Dinh said. "I just stood there for a second and then the first thing I did was contact my employees."
Initially, Chay Corner started out as a pop-up shop, operating in rented-out kitchens. Now, they're planning on opening a brick-and-mortar location in Arden-Arcade. However, during the finalization process, they are operating from a food truck and attending events such as pop-ups, festivals and catering for events.
After the robbery happened, Dinh said the robber took everything, including their griddle, stoves, deep fryer and coolers - leaving them with just the broom.
They also lost their cash drawer, receipt printers and Point-of-Sale (POS) system during the robbery, which all resulted in roughly $5,000 worth of stolen equipment.
Dinh initially posted an announcement on Facebook to raise community awareness and give his customers a heads-up.
Now, the community has called on others to help revitalize Chay Corner.
"Everyone on social media told me to start a GoFundMe and raise funds, but asking for help is not something that really comes naturally to us," Dinh said. "We were a little reluctant at first, but we wanted to just acknowledge that other people wanted to help us."
Raising over $2,000 and exceeding their goal of $1,000, Chay Corner has nothing but love to give back to the community in response to their generous donations.
"We were set back thousands of dollars, and we needed help from the community and the community gave us much more than we could ask for," Dinh said. "We're really excited that the community rallied up for us and that means a ton to us."
Transparency is important to Dinh and his customers, so all funds that have been donated will be used to get new equipment and tools that were lost, upgrade services to include more catering options and possibly delivery, extend hours to keep staff cool during the warming summer months and provide emergency funds for protection from future pitfalls.
Dinh also mentioned how important it is to bring the Vietnamese food that he grew up with to the plant-based community and how sharing his culture with the community really brings joy to Dinh and his employees at Chay Corner.
Chay Corner is still graciously accepting donations on their GoFundMe until Wednesday, June 15. Donate by going to www.GoFundMe.com/f/Chay-Corner-Revitalization.
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