Cabbages & Condoms

Mechai founded PDA in 1974 to promote family planning and eradicate poverty. The first Cabbages & Condoms restaurant was set up in 1984 in Bangkok’s Sukhumvit area. Initially it was just a commissary to provide lunch to PDA’s staff. It gradually expanded to 40 seats, catering primarily to the friends and family of the staff. Finally the general public was invited in. By 1986, the first location was making a profit for PDA, and word began to spread to tourists and foreigners.

“It’s all because of the guidebooks,” says Boongit. Glowing reviews made the restaurant a must-visit stop for tourists to Thailand. Additionally, Mechai’s ongoing work with various UN programs and other NGOs brought in many curious foreigners. In 1995 the Bangkok restaurant was renovated, expanding its capacity to 450 seats. Today 90% of the patrons are foreigners, more than half Americans and Europeans, and the rest are mainly Japanese and Chinese.

The real impact of Cabbages & Condoms can been seen in the targeted programs of the PDA. The organization once stood alone in undertaking AIDS education in the country. Although many other organizations are now involved in the field, Mechai still chairs the national AIDS Committee. PDA’s initial work in promoting birth control, a generation ago, has now multiplied into a wide array of programs promoting gender equality and democracy, tree planting and environmental protection, and community empowerment and income generation.

The Sap Tai branch, for example, was founded to preserve wild animals in the surrounding rural areas and provide new income sources for local poor who previously engaged in poaching and logging. They also trained local farmers to produce food without the use of chemicals, and to adopt practices that prevent deforestation. They have created a recycling system that sorts waste, sells used plastic bottles, and makes natural fertilizers from dried leaves. And they run a “Carbon Bank” in which companies like Chevron underwrite opportunities for staff to plant trees on plots of public land near the neighboring Khao Yai National Park.

Other locations focus more on conservation practices within the establishment. According to Boongit, “in the case of our Pattaya branch, the resort is an environmentally conscious establishment. We recycle wastewater from the laundry and dilute it with rainwater in order to water our gardens and trees. All the in-room freebies have packaging made from recycled paper.”

The Pattaya restaurant supports a secondary school run by PDA for rural children in the northeastern province of Buriram. It deploys project-based learning and teaches basic living skills like weaving and sewing. It’s free for all who attend—the school covers its expenses through PDA’s established BSPs.