Charity begins at home, or rather at a wedding this time. Amidst all that shaadi fun, there is a simple way all you would-be brides and grooms can do something for the society. How? Well, just make sure to reach out to these places in the city if you have surplus food. They aim to tackle two issues only - food wastage and hunger.
PS: It can be any occasion, small or big. Just do your bit.
With an aim to put an end to food-wastage and combat hunger among the poor, Robin Hood Army (RHA), a zero-funds organisation, is taking to the streets to feed the hungry. Spread across 70 cities in 12 countries, RHA was founded in 2014 by Neel Ghose, Anand Sinha and Aarushi Batra. Modelled on Portugal’s ‘Re-Food Program’, it is a team of volunteers, called Robins, who collect surplus food from restaurants, convention halls, homes (if there is a large quantity), and distribute it to the poor and homeless.
To become one of the Robins, all you have to do is join their Facebook page of Robin Hood Army Hyderabad and they will get back to you immediately.
Acting as a bridge between hunger and food wastage, Ankit Kawatra started Feeding India in 2014, when he was 22. The not-for-profit social enterprise aims to work towards the goal of eliminating hunger in the society. It has a 24/7 helpline that people can call on when they want to donate food. Within a couple of hours, they arrive and take the load off from you. To make the process easy, they also have an app on Google Playstore. Till date, Feeding India has served over a million meals to those who need it.
The organisation strives to bring happiness on the faces of the underprivileged by providing them with surplus food from hotels and restaurants. Their aim is to have no single person on road sleeping without a single day meal. Basically, combat the problem of hunger. Once they collect the food, they pack them and distribute the food among the needy, shelter homes, orphanages, etc. They deliver around 400 to 450 people worth of food.
They follow the same drill of collecting the food and distributing among the people on the streets. They conduct a quality check before distributing the food to the underprivileged people at government hospitals. The core group behind Food Bank Hyderabad are Dileep, Iqbal, Abdul Salam and Satya Pamidi. They distributed 34 food packets during the first food distribution drive. Today, they have more than 100 plus volunteers and 100 plus donors.
This is the initiative by Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). Under this, GHMC in association with couple of NGOs including Apple Home for Orphans Children, has set up a food bank (refrigerator) with an aim to make good use of surplus food at functions, other places. To ensure easy collection and distribution, they have also launched an app. It allows the users to register as a food donor and offers an option to collect or drop food at the nearest fridge. At present, there are 30 locations where fridges are being operated and they will be on a GIS platform allowing easy locating.