Chennai: Next time, when you walk into a restaurant and your waiter asks your consent to add Rs 30 more to your bill, don’t yell at him. He is only trying to help a hungry man or woman who may be just across the road.
Welcome to the new concept of “One Token = One Meal” by the Food Bank–Chennai, a fledgling organisation, that has feeding the hungry on the streets of the metropolis by collecting home-cooked food from homes and distributing them to the needy since the devastating floods last December.
The token, which one buys at a cost of Rs 30 at restaurants, would have to be deposited in the collection box at the cash counter. Every week, on a particular day, volunteers of the
Food Bank will visit the outlet and collect as many meals against the number of coupons that have been collected that week. For now, the organisation has tied up with 3 restaurants in the city and plans to bring more such outlets under its radar to help the needy. The restaurants that currently have the collection boxes are Bay Leaf in Chromepet, Akshaya Bhavan in T. Nagar and Ganesh Bhavan in Anna Nagar.
“We wanted to involve more people in the noble cause of feeding the hungry in pursuit of creating a hunger-free India. We have been collecting food from people, but that was not enough to feed everyone since there are lakhs of people who go to bed with their stomach empty. Since we wanted to do something innovative to attract to more to the system, we thought of introducing token for meal,” Sneha Mohandas, who founded Food Bank–Chennai, told Deccan Chronicle.
Food Bank has 16 chapters across the city and 210-odd volunteers fan out their areas on a particular day every week to find out the hungry and feed them with home-cooked food. “As a policy, the organisation does not accept leftover food and instead asks people to cook extra for two people so that fresh food can be given to people who need it. We insist for fresh cooked food since everyone is equal when it comes to eating and we are happy that the response so far is good,” said Anandh SG, a member of the organisation.
Since the concept is new to the city, the Food Bank plans to come out with
pamphlets and an active social media campaign to spread awareness among the public about donating to feed those who go hungry everyday in the city.
“Many people are willing to help, but don’t know where to go. Here, we offer a platform for them either to donate a meal or prepare a meal all by themselves and donate it to the people,” Ms Mohandas said.
