Leave it up to Jaden Smith to spread some positivity in the world. The young entrepreneur and songwriter announced he will open a new vegan restaurant to serve free food to individuals experiencing homelessness.
The restaurant I Love You, which doesn't have an opening date yet, will raise its prices for regular patrons to help those in need of a free meal, Variety reported. Smith said it’s a way for people to pay it forward.
The restaurant will provide unhoused individuals with nutritional food, including grain bowls, according to Mic. Its conception comes from one of Smith’s previous charitable projects, the I Love You Restaurant food truck.
The son of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith started the food truck initiative on his 21st birthday roughly two years ago. According to Mic, its mission was to feed unhoused individuals by distributing food to people living in Los Angeles’ Skid Row region. Now, it has reached thousands of people in Harlem and New York City, Totally Vegan Buzz reported.
Last year, the food truck, which also served vegan meals, was restricted from handing out food as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a response, Smith began distributing care packages that included food, clothing, hand sanitizer and masks. But with Los Angeles County and other parts of the U.S. slowly easing its pandemic restrictions, Smith, who will turn 23 in July, decided it was time to expand his philanthropic food endeavor.
"I just want to give back because I love the world so much and I care about the world, and I care about the people in the world,” the entrepreneur said of his initiatives last year. “I just want to give back because it's the right thing to do. I also have ideas on how to do it."
Jaden Smith is opening a restaurant to feed unhoused people in Los Angeles’ Skid Row area https://t.co/KXFZHiZ4ac
pic.twitter.com/CqyAos9jFw— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 13, 2021
According to its Instagram, I Love You Restaurant partners with notable brands including Levi’s, Impossible Foods and New Balance to provide shoes and other items to members of the Los Angeles community.
Just last year, in collaboration with New Balance, Jaden dropped a new sneaker in collaboration made of vegan materials.
“I love New Balance,” he said of the collaboration. “They’re family. I’m always working on some New Balance-related thing.”
Jaden has other current projects in the works. In October, he launched The Water Box initiative with his nonprofit 501CTHREE to provide access to clean water to underserved communities. According to Complex, the initiative works as a filtration system for places that lack basic resources. The concept was successfully used in Michigan during the Flint water crisis, as Blavity previously reported.
Jaden told Complex in an interview that the equivalent of 300,000 bottles were filled using the system.
“At any moment, we can create a new version of the world,” Jaden said. “I have a belief that the next thing that changes everything for everyone can be around the corner.”
In March, Jaden presented his latest clothing collection for fall 2021 called "Untitled" for MsftsRep, his long-time fashion label. The brand will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year, Nylon reported.
