(Image source from: The News Minute)

In a heartwarming gesture, a restaurant in Florida, the United States, which is run by two men hailing from Kerala, has donated the proceeds from their two-day business to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF).

The owners of Great Indian Grill donated the proceeds from August 24 and 25, which is worth 4712.83 U.S. dollars (Rs 3.32 lakh), to the relief fund.

The restaurant is located in Florida's Pompano Beach, one of the major tourist destinations in the U.S.

"When the people of Kerala are going out of their way to contribute to the reconstruction efforts, we just could not sit back and do nothing," Susheel Nalakath, one of the owners of the restaurant, told Manorama.

Over the past week, the restaurant was reportedly decorated with Kerala-themed motifs. Additionally, they spoke to their customers about the floods in Kerala and showed photographs from Facebook and online news portals. They were also requested to contribute to the CM's relief fund.

According to Nalakath, a few customers from France and New Zealand had already heard about the floods and had promised to contribute to the relief fund.

The owners even sported T-shirts that had 'Save Kerala' messages and had even displayed the various ways in which foreign contributors could donate to the CMDRF.

Earlier this week, two U.S.-based Malayalis, Arun Nella, and Ajomon, raised over 1.5 million dollars for Kerala flood relief through crowdfunding. They had started a fundraising campaign on Facebook and in eight days raised more than $1.5 million. The amount, which is more than Rs 10.5 crore, would be given to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.

On Sunday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had urged people, including the Malayali diaspora across the globe, to donate one-month salary towards the relief efforts in the state.

By Sowmya Sangam