Project proposal:

Open a New Restaurant for Fresh Fruit, Vegetable and Herbal drinks at Tangalle.

This paper outlines a project proposal from the Sri Lankan NGO Tangalle Children Relay to create a sustainable income streatm.   This project will help Tangalle Children Relay to earn part of the money to support and ensure its future.

The paper contains the following sections:

A)  Background: Tangalle Children’s Relay

C)  Our Proposed Fresh Fruit and Herbal Restaurant project: The Concept

D)  Goals and Objectives of the Project

F)  Methods We Will Use

E)  Staff and Administration

G)  Measuring Outcomes

H)  Resources Needed

Annex I     Projected Budget

A)   Background: Tangalla Children Relay

Tangalle Children Relay was set up in 2005 to help the needy women and their children in the region. Basically those affected by last tsunami. Our vision is equal rights for every child (Education – Nutrition – Health). With a small staff of 8 and funding from France, Germany and England, we have proven successes in following 4 Projects.

·       Pre School for 21 children of 3 ½ to 5 years old, from the poorest families around the Tangalle.

·       Youth Hostel for 16 (Female) high school students, 17 to 19 years old, from very remote villages, who cannot offer to travel daily for high school studies at Tangalle. (They want to become a doctor, engineer or accountant)

·       Giving financial help to five families from different locations according to their children’s basic needs. (Health, education, Nutrition etc…)

·       Operating a social welfare project in a tsunami housing scheme by helping 135 families to be able to grow vegetables in their gardens.   The sale will help them financially and also the family will get fresh and healthy meals.

 We know that in order to achieve our vision, it is important to continue and develop the above projects for a reasonable period. But the present economic problems all over the world and the existing political situation in Sri Lanka with the ongoing war with terror organizations have paved our future funding system complicated. It will directly affect the sustainability of our projects.  At the moment TCR is entirely funded with foreign funds. All our ongoing projects are providing a fantastic service for the needy families directly. Our donors and supporters are fully satisfied with these projects.

TCR has just received its official registration in Sri Lanka as charitable organization. But unfortunately, TCR is not at present given any sort of financial support from the Sri Lankan Government or other relevant organisations. TCR is maintaining a very good relationship with its overseas donors and co-operates with organizations working for same goals as TCR.

The need to earn to cover the budget of 2009 and beyond of TCR.

Many adults and children are suffering from gastritis, high blood pressure, malnutrition, and lack of vital vitamins. It is very important that those adults and children eat healthy food and drinks with the necessary vitamins and other sources. However, most people are now used to drinking ready-made bottled drinks and packet snacks instead of a balanced diet. Also they are not used to take their meals at regular times as they believe they are too busy to prepare something at home. That makes the situation worse.

In Sri Lanka it is very easy to grow and find fruits, vegetables and herbs all round the year. And it does not cost lot. But the people do not appreciate the value of these and its high quality nutrition. They always follow the modern style which is to buy from the supermarkets and not grow in the garden. So our aim is to encourage the community to grow and consume more healthy fruit, vegetables and herbs.

It is well known that the balanced healthy diet is the most important matter for a better life. The modern food culture followed by open economy has totally changed our traditional organic and environment friendly food system.

Instant foods in cans or packets are now most popular among the younger generation in Sri Lanka. But the people are not always aware of the contents of these instant foods. The poor knowledge of nutrition, busy life style, competitive education system and moving the people from village to urban cities are some of the common reasons that we have to consider. In Tangalle as well in many other places, there is nowhere available to buy meals of fresh fruit and vegetables or healthy drinks. In many restaurants or local food shops, the commonly available quick food is made by wheat flower and fried in oil.

To test our idea, TCR undertook research in a Tangalle suburb.  Most people were happy with our ideas and appreciated our new project. They agreed that would would like to have more fruit and herbal drinks apart from their main meals, but the problem is that there is no place available.

This supports our idea for this project: to open a Restaurant in the city centre to provide fresh fruit and vegetable food and healthy herbal drinks for our people.

D)  Goals and Objectives of the Project

Goal # 1. Income for the sustainability of existing projects.
             2. Healthy food for wealthy nation.

Objective #.1 – TCR needs its current projects to be sustainable and to increase the quality of the services that it provides for needy children.

Objective #.2 – To provide an option for the community in Tangalle to have healthy and nutritious food and drinks for reasonable rates, yet in highest quality.

Objective #.3 – Provide job opportunity for young women who are desperately looking for a job. 

·       Main beneficiaries will be the ones who are currently receiving benefits from TCR.

·       The sub beneficiaries will be the community of Tangalle and the daily visitors to Tangalle town as they get a refreshing fruit or herbal drink for a reasonable price.

·       The villagers of the tsunami housing scheme, where TCR helps them to grow vegetable and herbal plants. If this project goes well, TCR will buy their products directly from the villagers and they will get an extra income.

F)  Methods

TCR will find and rent a suitable space in the centre of Tangalle town. The place will have a room for cooking and other basic preparations. Mainly it will be a restaurant where one can see how the food is preparing to ensure the quality. There will be four tables with 8 chairs for eight customers at a time. A small bar will display the items to be served. There will be no pre-prepared food, but most drinks will be prepared while the customers are waiting.

The staff will be well trained with customer care qualities. On every possible occasion, the customers will be made aware of our service and its quality. Also a small description of how the food is prepared will be given to interested customers. TCR will introduce its own recipes as unique menu. The seasonal fruits and vegetables will be used to reduce the product cost and to minimize the food waste. The customer-friendly decorations will be added to each dish to attract attention. No artificial ingredients or aromas will be used.

We can also consider a mobile service visiting government and public departments to sell our products.

We will promote our products mainly for school children and office workers.

The restaurant will be open daily from 7.00 am to 6.00 pm. which gives the best possibility for our targeted customers to visit and buy.

For the first 3 months, we will research the market demand and we will adjust our service to meet the maximum customer demand and satisfaction.

The Project will employ four full-time staff:

·     Kitchen attendant basically for cooking and basic food preparation and cleaning.

·       Bar attendance, basically to prepare fruit juices and other fruit meals. Cleaning and serving will also be his or her job.

·       A steward will basically serve the customers and cleaning the front area.

·       The cashier will be in charge of all billing and payment and keeping records. He or she will also make a well public relation role at work.

·      All other activities will be organized by the present administration of TCR. 

·       Our association members will overlook the project for advises and other guidance to promote the project and its qualities.

H)  Measuring Outcomes

TCR will expect customer comments regularly to analyze the quality of services they get from our restaurant. We will maintain the quality of the service and food variety at all times. TCR will outline to increase the income by reaching more customers. Finally we will expect reasonable income as a profit for our project budget for 2009.

I)  Resources Needed

•    Personnel - Four full time staff

•    Facilities – A fairly good place at the centre of Tangalle with sufficient facilities such as, availability of space, easy access for any customer and good looking view, toilet facility.

 •   Equipment –

Bar table:

Projected budget for two years – January 2009 to December 2010

Kitchen	Resumed cost (LKR)	Available
Refrigerator	0	OK
Wash basins (2 units)	10000
vegetable rack	8000
fruit rack	8000
cooking pots and equipments rack	6000
cutting table	12000
Gas cooker and oven.	30000
Cooking pots and cutting tools	30000
Mixture and grinder	30000
Total	134000
Restaurant equipments
04 tables	24000
8 chairs	24000
01 cashier table + Chair	12000
01 Billing machine	40000
Total	100000
Bar table
Bar table with display counter	60000
Glasses and dishes	12000
Cutleries	2000
Total	74000
Advertisement
Front name board	25000
Front notice board	8000
Inside wall posters	10000
Total	43000
Home rental	480000
Other expenses	100000
Other charge - Administrative	60000
Total	640000
Total Budget in Sri Lankan Rupees	991000