Food Bank gets a thrust in Chennai this festive season

Chennai

In 2015, when Sneha Mohandoss set up the Food Bank in the city, she would barely receive a call. However, now, after almost three years, she receives three calls per day. Now, there are people who cook extra for the purpose and ensure that it reaches the needy. “It is the festive season and we have now begun to get more calls than before. We have also been able to reach out to more orphanages as the amount of food donated has scaled up considerably,” she said.

Food Bank has about 25 local champions in every locality -- from Anna Nagar to Tambaram. The organisation has also mapped the hunger spots in places like T Nagar and Saidapet, where food is regularly distributed by local teams.

Ayyamittu Un, a community refrigerator started last year by Dr Issa Fathima under the banner The Public Foundation, now has service in four spots in the city. With these spread across the city in Alandur, Ashok Nagar, OMR and Besant Nagar, extra food is brought to the closest drop point before distributing it. “The hunger spots are within a two-kilometre radius and the volunteers — at least a 100 of them — connected through a WhatsApp group distribute them to the identified people,” she said explaining the operations. Dr Issa added that the willingness of the public to drop off the excess food is encouraging. “I get calls even as late as 10 pm from people, enquiring about the closest drop point. During Deepavali, we will get more calls, at least 200 or more, when there is too much food around,” she added.

One of the oldest organisations that started a food bank by providing the grains for orphanages and NGOs is Rajasthan Youth Association, Chennai Metro. Rupesh Chordia from the organisation explained how they have found more donors, even from outside the community to propel the initiative that began more than two decades ago. “We get calls from people to offer a bag or two grains from across the city to help the orphanages, old age homes and homes for special children. There are 180 of them in and around the city,” he pointed out. The committee of the organisation which changes every year has an energetic team that sifts the donations— differentiating between rice varieties, wheat, etc — to ensure that good quality inputs reach the recipients. “The provisions are passed on to them every Friday,” he said.