Most people like to eat, and eating makes them feel good. Originally a basic need, food has now become an important part of our lifestyle. Though most of us enjoy the luxury of having four meals per day, many struggle to get even a single meal. Meanwhile, food wastage has increased to alarming levels. If you want to eliminate hunger, you can join one of these initiatives started by the Chennai makkal!
Sneha Mohandoss, Food Bank India: #FeedtheHungerChallenge has been our biggest online campaign. We used Facebook to reach out to the younger generation, and we started early (on May 1) to maximise the number of participants. We have had more than 1,000 pledges coming in from over 30 cities—including Singapore, UAE, Belgium, etc. All you have to do is take a selfie and pledge to feed a certain number of people on World Hunger Day, post it on social media and nominate more people to do the same. On May 28, you can either feed the under-privileged by hand, or you can join local Food Bank volunteers. We are planning a nine-to-nine drive, and a sand sculpture awareness campaign on Besant Nagar beach.
Padmanabhan, No Food Waste: In a crowd-sourced effort to eliminate hunger in the country, we have launched an app called ‘Hunger Mapping’. The app will provide all the details about the hunger spot, where they need food — be it a slum, orphanage, shelter home, or government hospital. So, whoever wants to donate food can use this app to search for hunger spots near their area and donate food. Publishing details of hunger spots makes our work more result-oriented.
Ravoofa HK, co-owner of ETC Restaurant: This is one day that goes largely unnoticed — so it made sense for us to create a dining experience for the elderly and underprivileged. As a restaurant, it’s easy for us to organise a buffet and invite children and the elderly to join us, but we wanted people to participate in the initiative with us. That’s why we have organised an Open Table concept —if you want to be part of it, you can cook what you want and bring it to the buffet. Today, we’ll be inviting girls from an underprivileged home, and on May 28, we will be inviting the elderly residents from Anandam Illam home. There will be games as well to make the day interesting. We have partnered with Raindropss for this initiative. We’ll be definitely conducting this event again and I believe it’s something that we, as restaurant owners, should do more. There are a lot of establishments that conduct such projects.
Aravind Jayabal, founder and creative head of Raindropss: We have joined hands with ETC Restaurant for several activities. Jut like the previous year, this year too we will have a free food truck riding across the city on May 28. Food will be provided to the needy on the roadsides. We’ve partnered with Aasife Biryani for this. The truck will be flagged off from Mount Road at 11.30 am by Chef Damu, director Lakshmi Ramakrishanan and A. R. Reihana. We will be having our own set of volunteers, CSC India volunteers and volunteers from Seers Girls Home, Vyasarpadi, helping serve the food. Those interested can join us on May 28.
AK Ganesh, Eco Kitchen: This year, we’re just conducting a small fundraiser on our Facebook page, with World Hunger Day being the catalyst to get more people to pledge their support. Through our website and the ‘Hunger to Hope’ option, people can either choose a menu or contribute a certain sum towards the drive. We have been working with 18 institutions in Chennai since 2010 — and while it’s difficult to service all of them at the same time — we go to each of them on a rotational basis.
