But the moment he stepped up to the small kiosk, there was a heaviness about him, the kind that comes from spending too many hours wandering city streets with nothing in your stomach and everything to prove.
He had left his kampung at dawn, knocking on doors in search of work. By noon, his legs could barely carry him. So when a volunteer handed him a warm meal, tears filled his eyes.
That first meal brought him back a few more times – until one day, he returned steady, smiling, employed.
This is “Dapur Kita-Kita” – Kota Kinabalu’s first community soup kitchen – where stories like this unfold daily, quietly but powerfully, in the heart of Bandaran Berjaya.
“Dapur Kita-Kita was launched last December as a response to the very real problems we kept seeing around Kota Kinabalu.
“Many families, daily wage earners, and vulnerable individuals were struggling to secure even one proper meal a day,” shared Victor Lim, the soup kitchen’s vice president.
“So, our founder decided that no one should go hungry in Sabah,” he added.
Spearheaded by Jetsin Sdn Bhd managing director Koh Chung Jade, the soup kitchen serves more than 200 meal packs each day – rice, stir-fried vegetables, a meat dish, and water – prepared by a rotating pool of over 300 volunteers. Since opening, they have distributed 42,900 meals and counting. But it’s not just the food that keeps people coming.
“We run on an open-door, no-judgment policy,” Lim explained. “There’s no paperwork, no collection of information. Anyone who needs help is welcome. We purposely avoid complicated systems because hunger doesn’t have to wait.”
The rule is beautifully simple: if you are hungry, you don’t need to explain why.
“We wanted a soup kitchen that’s built on dignity, community and empathy … not just providing food but providing hope too,” Lim stressed.
Behind the scenes, the operation is a well-oiled machine powered by students, retirees, professional chefs, NGOs, and corporate volunteers.
Each morning, 10 to 15 people gather in the kitchen, washing, chopping, cooking, and packing. Their ingredients come from daily purchases, in-kind market donations, and community contributions when stocks dip.
By 11.30am, they are at the kiosk handing out meals while another team embarks on outreach deliveries. When everything is done, volunteers clean up, sit down for a simple lunch, and call it a day.
“When all these groups come together, it creates a strong and beautiful volunteer community that reflects our mission,” Lim said, smiling.
That sense of community is why Lim joined in the first place.
“For me, it started with the simple belief that if we’re able to help, we must help. Dapur Kita-Kita opened my eyes to how many people truly relied on daily food support. I saw people from all walks of life lining up and grateful for a meal … that deeply touched me.”
Looking ahead, Lim said that their first goal is straightforward: expand capacity. “We want to serve more than 200 meals daily as our resources grow,” he explained.
Upgrading the kitchen is next – better freezers, processors, and storage to make work faster and safer. Beyond that lies a bigger dream: reaching communities outside Kota Kinabalu.
But the plan closest to his heart is the introduction of community skills programmes.
Inspired by initiatives in Kuala Lumpur, he hopes Dapur Kita-Kita can one day offer basic cooking, hygiene, and kitchen training for youths and B40 families. “Skill programmes,” he said, “so we not only feed, but equip.”
Because at its core, Dapur Kita-Kita is more than a soup kitchen. It is a place where strangers line up but leave feeling seen, and where hope is ladled out just as generously as rice and vegetables.
And as long as someone in Kota Kinabalu needs the strength to keep going, Dapur Kita-Kita intends to be right there, bowl in hand, ready to serve.