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Feeding India

Feeding India is an Indian based not for profit organization founded by the youth to tackle two interconnected problems in India, that of Food wastage and Hunger by redistributing excess cooked food from hotels, restaurants, caterers and individuals to needy people.

Started by Ankit Kawatra in August 2014, the organization believes that that we do not need to create new food to feed the less privileged, but to simply direct the already created extra food. Feeding India has its presence in 20 cities across India with more than 800 volunteers (called Hunger Heroes). The volunteers are mainly students from different universities across India, while the core team comprises of professionals working at reputed multinationals. Together they have fed close to 3,00,000 nutritious meals to the needy, with just excess food since their inception.

History

Feeding India was founded in August 2014 by Ankit Kawatra, a management student who quit his corporate job to start Feeding India at the age of 22. The thought of starting Feeding India had occurred to Ankit after he attended a wedding where he was appalled to see the amount of food going to waste. The organization was started in New Delhi and gradually expanded to other cities with the help of volunteers and supporters.

About

Feeding India is a not for profit society registered under the Indian Societies Registration Act of India. Hunger Heroes as they call themselves, are common people who are on a mission to feed the poor of the country by channelizing only excess food. They have partnered with restaurants, caterers, corporate offices and even college hostels from where they channelize the leftover food to the nearest donation centers after performing certain quality checks to ensure food safety.

The organization consists of 800+ volunteers nationally, who represent themselves wearing the green color. Feeding India started its operation in New Delhi and has spread to 20 cities in India which include Agra, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Goa, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Manipal, Mumbai, Noida, Pune.

In each city the volunteers are divided into two groups — Superheroes and Hunger Heroes. The Superheroes are the most dedicated volunteers. They have to work around the clock to ensure feeding drives run smoothly. Besides, they have to proactively approach potential donors and convince them to donate excess food that would otherwise end up in garbage dumps. The role of the Hunger Heroes is to collect food parcels and then distribute them wherever people are in need.

Cause

The organization solves 2 problems in India namely, hunger and food waste. Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. India tops the world hunger chart with around 20 crore Indians sleeping hungry each night. The hunger and malnutrition level in India has reached unnerving heights; nearly 2 million children who are born each year do not live beyond the age of five. At the same time, 40% food goes waste in India, which is enough to feed one-third of the poor.

Impact

The organization has served close to 3,00,000 nutritious meals to the needy, just with excess food creating a four-fold impact:

1. Economic: More equitable distribution of food,
2. Nutritional: Enabling wholesome meals to the hungry,
3. Social: Providing access to nutritious food to the needy who can then devote more time to income-generating activities creating socially stable households and
4. Environmental: channelising excess resources to be put to better use reducing carbon footprint (environmental).

Approach and mission

1. The approach is systematic and involves collecting excess food from parties, events, weddings and restaurants and then distributing it to shelter homes and other ngos which are already partnered with.
2. Before distributing the food to the disadvantaged population, the volunteers run a thorough quality check. After checking the collected food for being nutritious, fresh and edible, it is kept in cold storage even as care is taken to not spoil the taste.
3. For doing this, proper training is provided to all the volunteers by experts in food technology. An effort is made to ensure that the food reaches the right people at the right time.

Most people and food donors contact the organization through a national helpline number. However, a mobile application has also been introduced on the World Food Day 2015 that helps users connect with nearby hunger heroes and donate their leftover food to making food donation easier and more regular. The vision of the organization is to end hunger by 2025 while the current aim aim is to be spread to 50 cities by 2016 so they can serve as many people as possible.

Campaigns

1. Save My Love - Famous chefs of India such as Ranveer Brar, Ritu Dalmia, Manjit Gill, Ajay Chopra, Shipra Khanna among others came together on social media to talk about their true love for food asking people to save their love and not waste it, as a part of this video initiative.
2. Back to Bachpan - Initiated this campaign as a part of the Joy of Giving Week/Daan Utsav
3. #IAmFeedingIndia on the World Food Week 2015 with TLI - The national not for profit, Feeding India in collaboration with The Logical Indian reached out to the magnanimous heart of each Indian and to open their eyes to the crores of hungry fellow brethren who go unnoticed each day, also pledging to never waste this precious gift of food for the year to come. 1.4 million meals were served, across the country, during the campaign.

External Links:

1. News9 - Youth come together to feed India
2. Delhi Times - Food thrown in Delhi's parties enough to feed homeless
3. Livemint - Bringing the buffet to the pavement
4. Times Of India (Nagpur) - Spirited youth aim to end hunger
5. India Times - These kids are planning to end Hunger in India by 2025
6. Deccan Herald - Excess food meets empty stomachs
7. The Logical Indian - This disease kills more people than AIDS and Malaria
8. The Logical India - India tops world hunger list with 194 million people
9. The Logical India - These hunger heroes are Feeding India's poor with excess food
10. The Better India - Feeding India leftover food
11. Youth Ki Aawaz - Feeding India Hunger Heroes
12. DU Beat- Feeding India changing and sustaining lives
13. University express - Feeding India step towards hunger free India
14. Office Chai - Most unique-crazy startups in India
15. Wedmegood- Feed the poor by donating your wedding leftovers
16. Le Bouffe - Be a Hunger Hero with Feeding India
17. Caleidoscop.in - Feeding not just food but happiness
18. Mintified - Three organizations that will help you help Nepal victims