A million mouths to feed

In a shelter home in Munirka in southwest Delhi, a group of 30 children jump with excitement at the sight of three large containers of food. The containers are a familiar sight as they come twice a day, bearing their breakfast and dinner. But they don't always make an appearance at midday, bearing lunch. Over the next half hour, the kids queue up and proceed to eat in silence, asking for second helpings periodically.

"These children and their parents were begging on the road when an NGO brought them to this home. Their parents were given work — the mothers took up domestic work and the fathers work at construction sites. Another NGO volunteered to informally educate the children and enrolled as many as possible in formal schools. We have decided to provide them with food," says Angela Nar, co-founder of Delhi Foodbanking Network, an NGO that collects food from companies and individuals, and distributes it to destitute communities in informal schools and shelter homes.

A huge number of people in India continue to go to bed hungry or survive on insufficient meals that lack adequate nutrition. According to 2015-16 National Family Health Survey, 38.4 per cent children under the age five are stunted (i.e. they haven't attained the height appropriate for their age) and 35.7 per cent are underweight. Among 15 to 49-year-olds, 53 per cent women and 22.7 per cent men are anaemic. Inversely, there's immense wastage of food in homes and restaurants, at weddings, birthday parties, conventions and other celebrations. Now Delhi Foodbanking Network, some other individuals and NGOs have come forward to bridge this gap.

Among them are a group of 200 dabbawalas in Mumbai. Over the years, they realised that while the many people they serviced couldn't eat all the food in their tiffins, a large population in the city went to sleep hungry. This led them to form the 'Roti Bank' in December 2015.

"People who've hosted weddings, birthday parties or 'shraadhs' call us and tell us that they have excess food. We collect food from Grant Road, Vikhroli, Andheri, Mulund and Byculla between 6pm and 8pm and distribute it by 9pm. However, anyone can come to our office and deliver food," says Subhash Gangaram Talekar, general secretary of the Mumbai Dabbawala Association. "I get around 30-40 calls a day," he adds. "We feed around 200-300 people living on the footpath and in slums on a daily basis. On weekends, when a lot of gatherings take place, the number goes up," he adds. They also cater to tribals from Karjat and far away places, and as well as relatives of patients in hospitals as and when food is available.

There is a criteria for collection though — the meals should suffice for at least 20-25 people, or it is not viable for Roti Bank to collect. At times, they get incomplete meals — rice without gravy, and so on. Roti Bank then faces the challenge of making up for the shortage so that those they distribute it to get a proper meal. Another challenge is when they get food in bulk — say, for a hundred or more people. "We can't carry so much food on our bicycles. We have to then hire a taxi and since we don't have a tie-up with a company or accept donations, it goes from our pocket," adds Talekar.

How the food is collected is very important, agrees Ankit Kawatra, founder of Feeding India, an organisation that feeds people across various Indian cities. Kawatra claims his organisation uses refrigerated vehicles to collect excess food from individuals and partner restaurants, dhabas and companies, and takes it to their partner homes and beneficiaries. Feeding India, which runs on donations of money and food from individuals and companies.

claims to receive 600+ calls to donate or receive food every day — over 200 via their mobile app.

But the backbone of Feeding India is its volunteers. "Feeding India serves 800,000 meals to needy people every month; 60 per cent of this happens with the help of young volunteers. We started in 2014 with three or four volunteers, who fed around 35 people, today we have 4,500 hunger heroes (volunteers) and by 2020, we aim to reach 10,000 heroes in 100 cities of India," says Kawatra, who was honored by Queen Elizabeth II last month.

Two others — Robin Hood Army in Delhi and Let's Spread Love based in Bengaluru, Pune, Gurgaon, Chennai and Delhi — follow a similar, volunteer-led model. The former has an 'army' of over 8,000 volunteers in 41 cities and provides food at least once a week and sometimes daily. Let's Spread Love, an informal network started by two students and two IT employees, relies on registered individual donors who prepare the food, and volunteers who collect and donate the food. They feed around 4,000 people a month. The food they distribute is freshly prepared and vegetarian. Registered donors are also invited to visit the site where it is distributed. "We operate on a 'no money' policy. We collect cooked food from individuals across the cities and deliver it within 1-2 hours after it is prepared. We do not accept left-over food under any circumstances," says Selina Elias, co-founder of Let's Spread Love.

Similarly, Delhi Foodbanking Network does not collect excess food because it is perishable. "We serve freshly cooked meals every day. We ensure continuous supply for a fixed period of at least one meal and cannot depend on excess food as that could go bad. There has to be continuity of supply at every point of the chain," says Nar, who claims to feed about 15,000 people daily across 10 cities in India. Delhi Foodbanking Network prefers to collect non-perishable food items — pulses, rice, flour, cooking oil or donations of money — and has tied up with NGOs running shelter homes and schools who take the responsibility of cooking the meals. Cooked meals are only accepted from corporate houses, which commit to supplying a large, fixed quantity on a daily basis.

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Such initiatives are great in meeting a real and pressing need; the challenge they face is logistics — minimising the time between collection and distribution to ensure that it reaches the recipients in good time. Logistics becomes a bigger challenge for organisations that leave the onus of collection and distribution to volunteers.

Most organisations claim to have a mechanism in place for quality control, but fall short of following procedures. "Our meals come to us around 4pm or 5pm and are almost always spoiled by then. We have become very careful ever since there were complaints of children vomiting," says Meena Devi, a helper in Unnati, an NGO where Feeding India supplies lunch on weekdays. Devi also complains of fluctuating quantity. "Sometimes we only get vegetables with very little rice or rotis, and it becomes difficult to distribute food equally," she adds, blaming these issues on the lack of funds. Feeding India has food technologists on board who have helped draw up a protocol for storaging and handling food; all its volunteers and staff are trained to follow it.

Another challenge is food received late at night. While Roti Bank refuses to collect post 8pm, Robin Hood Army and Feeding India send their volunteers to collect it to be distributed later in the night or stored in the refrigerator for the next morning.

Between them, these organisations serve around 35,000 people daily, which is no mean number, but Dipa Sinha, co-convener of the Right to Food campaign believes it is only a drop in the ocean. "They are sensitising people and bringing awareness, which is important. But to bring a change, we need to work at the policy level," says Sinha — referring to how much the government spends on social security, health and education as a proportion of GDP — is still very low.

Can private initiative make up for public oversight?

Eliminating hunger everyday

Feeding India: 16,000 people daily
Delhi Foodbanking Network: 15,000 people daily
Roti Bank: 200-300 people daily
Let's Spread Love: 4,000 people a month
Robin Hood Army: Served over 2 million people since August 2014

NGOs that feed the hungry

Feeding India: + 91 9871178810
Delhi Foodbanking Network: +91 9810007524
Let's Spread Love: Bangalore: +91 9655135151; Chennai: +91 9884832784; Delhi: +91 9999677331; Pune: +91 9718643555
Roti Bank: +91 9867221310
Robin Hood Army: Sign up on their website