Jaden Smith is set to open his first restaurant for homeless people after the success of his food tru-ck init!ative. The son of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith started the I Love You food tru-ck back in July 2019 and it was designed to give rough sleepers free vegan food.
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It’s since gone on to serve thousands of people in the Los Angeles’ Sk-id Row area and Harlem in New York City and Jaden wants to keep the good times rolling. According to Variety, the concept behind the new restaurant will be that customers with money will be encouraged to pay it forward.
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Jaden said: “If you’re not homeless, not only do you have to pay, but you have to pay for more than the food’s worth so that you can pay for the person behind you.” The musician and ph!lanthrop-ist added that the I Love You idea is ‘for homeless people to get free food’ and is ‘a movement that is all about giving people what they deserve, healthy vegan food for free’.
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In the same year as launching his food truck, he said he would help the Michigan town of Flint with their clean drinking water. Smith said he would use some of the profits generated from his JUST Water company to place filtration systems around the city. Jaden has been a long promoter of vegan food and the vegan lifestyle, however he ended up having a tough conversation with his parents about his health.
Two years ago, Jada explained on her Facebook Watch show Red Table Talk: “Will and I had a bit of an intervention with Jaden because he’s a vegan now, but we realised he wasn’t getting enough protein. “So he was wasting away. He just looked drained, he was just depleted, he wasn’t getting the nutrients.” Will added: “There was even a little greyness to his skin. We got really nervous. But you’re definitely looking better now.” While there might be people who would rebuke this concern and tell them there’s nothing to worse about, Jaden listened and changed his lifestyle.
“I also just wanna say that I’m vegetarian, that I’ve tried to be vegan. I’m vegetarian, you know, I’ve tr!ed to eat vegan meals. I’ll go vegan for a week or so but for the past year I’ve been vegetarian,” the musician and actor said. Jaden explained that his lack of nutrition was due to missing meals because he wasn’t bothered to make food.