Jaden Smith Vegan Restaurant Serves Meals to Those in Need for Free

Jaden Smith is reviving his vegan food truck that set out to feed people experiencing housing insecurity for free with his new “I Love You’ restaurant. Smith's charitable endeavor centers itself around making sure that people without a steady income or home can eat for free while customers with plenty of resources will pay extra for their meals to balance the restaurant’s budget.

The actor explained to Variety that his new restaurant is “for homeless people to get free food.” He continued by laying out his business model by saying, “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 I Love You food truck opened debuting Skid Row for the first time in 2019. Smith decided to launch his food truck in the Los Angeles neighborhood to combat the increasing population of housing insecure people in the area. With Skid Row having one of the highest homelessness rates in the US, he hoped that his food truck would provide some support to the neighborhood and the people facing hardship.

“The I Love You restaurant is a movement that is all about giving people what they deserve; healthy, vegan food for free,” Smith wrote on his Instagram.

Smith will open his first brick-and-mortar location sometime this year, but no details have been released about the contents of the menu The restaurant is set to value bringing completely plant-based, nutritional food to anybody who cannot afford it, adding to the musician’s growling list of philanthropic projects.

“Our mission is to spread love to communities experiencing food and/or housing insecurity by offering water along with fresh, high quality, and delicious sustainable meal options,” the I Love You Restaurant’s statement reads.

Beyond the I Love You concept, Smith has been involved with multiple other projects that tackle housing, food insecurity, and financial hardships. Smith teamed up with rapper A$AP Rocky in 2020 to deliver more than 500 plant-based meals, JUST Waters, and Metrocards to those in need. The dedication to helping food insecurity is linked to promoting the nutritional value of plant-based foods.

The I Love You Brand also partnered with vegan chain Cafe Gratitude in 2019 to create the I Love You Bowl. The company served the bowl across all its locations to raise money for 10,000 free bowls to be served at the I Love You food truck.

Smith’s vocal stance on the plant-based movement became more apparent when he joined a list of celebrity investors that endorsed Impossible Foods. The actor followed his investment with a Twitter announcement that urged his followers to remove meat from their diets. Smith’s continued efforts to promote plant-based diets coincide with his mission to help people in need nationwide, claiming in a 2019 interview with Highsbobiety that he’s “just always wanted to be an advocate for humanity."