Mission: Erase hunger

Inspired by Mother Teresa, a Delhi philanthropist has rolled out one of the largest food programmes to feed 3 lakh hungry people for free

Kolkata's Saint Teresa is now the inspiration behind what is shaping up to be a large scale "feed the hungry" programme. Two common interests – reverence for Mother Teresa and pain for millions of Indians who go hungry everyday has now led a Kolkata girl and Delhi philanthropist join hands to roll out one of the largest food programmes that intends to feed around 300,000 hungry mouths across India daily, for free.

Mukulika Sinha – Kolkata girl and one of India's most respected names from the world of high fashion has decided to fulfil a long standing dream – feed India's hungry.

Sinha who has worked in the most coveted fashion houses globally – Burberry and Salvatore Ferragamo and is a common face at the London Fashion Week will now head the charity run by Delhi's renowned philanthropist Samir Thapar.

Thapar's "erasing hunger programme" at present is already feeding over 2000 people across different parts of Delhi under the aegis of the H D Sikand Foundation – named after his maternal grandfather.

Daily, two times a day (lunch and dinner), nearly 3000 chapatis, 100 kg vegetables, 60 kg rice and 20 kg dal are cooked by 12 people in the private kitchen of Thapar's house (to ensure utmost quality) and distributed at various spots across Delhi – Sai Baba Mandir in Lodhi Road, New Delhi railway station, Majnuka-tillah, Shanti Niketan and the Bhati-mines.

Thapar who is the chairman and MD of the famous conglomerate JCT is now firming up plans to scale up the programme pan India which will feed 300,000 Indians across the country by 2020.

Thapar says "My inspiration is Kolkata's Saint Teresa. At present, a lot of the food goes to the centres run by the Missionaries of Charity in Delhi. I am planning to scale up the charity across India and also provide food to MOC centres in Kolkata".

Thapar grew up with his maternal grandfather H D Sikand who was a very close supporter of Mother Teresa.

Thapar met Mother Teresa for the first time 19 years ago – just three months before she passed away.

"I met Mother at the MOC orphanage in New Delhi. When meeting her, I looked into her large blue eyes – the strength of this tiny lady amazed me. My grandfather Harnam Das Sikand was my hero. He taught me always to be grateful for what I have. He was very close to Mother Teresa," Thapar said.

So what drove Mukulika to take the plunge?

"Whenever I left my office or a luxury mall, I would always notice poor people on the road who would come begging for money to eat. It bothered me that here I was selling such high end products for millions of rupees on one hand but I wasn't being able to help these people with a decent two square meal. I would often think that it was futile being successful if we couldn't or didn't give back to society". "My ultimate goal is to be able to provide food to people so they can focus on working and not worry about where to get their next meal from. Our plan is to make this a national programme and reach the one million mark some day," said Sinha who has worked with Ferragamo and Burberry over the last 11 years said.