RCMQN’s Feed All In Need
1 CRORE MEALS DISTRIBUTED OVER 70 DAYS OF LOCKDOWN
The COVID-19 crisis brought to the fore many COVID warriors who stepped up to resolve or reduce various challenges that emerged. Members of The Rotary Club of Mumbai Queen’s Necklace (RCMQN) include some of the good Samaritans who truly took on the COVID-created food crisis head on. A veteran of 35 years in the social service sector, RCMQN launched its initiative, Feed All in Need, as soon as Lockdown 1.0 was declared.
The Genesis
The core Miracles Team of the club (so named for their desire to create miracles in service) swung into action, quickly deciding that the biggest collateral damage of the lockdown was going to be the hundreds of thousands of daily wage earners who were suddenly reduced to penury and brought to the brink of hunger and starvation. The Feed All In Need project was born and started taking shape. The project which started with supporting someone’s modest attempt to feed 5000 people daily quickly metamorphosed into a massive concerted effort, involving most of the members of RCMQN, to feed upto 1,60,000 meals daily to the less privileged.
The Funding
RCMQN Members have a deep sense of giving and they reached deep into their pockets and pledged commitments of Rs 4 crore in two weeks. This gave wings to the Miracles Team and one of the largest relief projects ever envisaged got underway.
Reliance Foundation provided free groceries for one month and TajSats Kitchen provided 20,000 free meals daily for 10 days. Thackers Caterers provided 4,000 free meals a day for several weeks and other caterers like Foodlink, Popular and Blue Sea also donated some meals.
Help poured in from all quarters and from small, heart-warming donations of Rs 105 from a staff member towards 5 meals, to large donations from corporates like Piramal Foundation, Amit Chandra Foundation, Mrs. Vita Dani, HSBC, HBS Foundation, Give India, Godrej group, Jewelex, Asian Star and Rosy Blue, to name a few. In two months, the donations raised in cash and kind reached a whopping total of Rs. 14 Crores.
The Kitchens
Annamrita ISKCON was roped in as the principal food supplier and provided piping hot, nutritious 100,000 khichdi meals from their three kitchens at Mahul, Wada and Mira Road. As the scale of the project Feed All in Need grew, other large caterers like NESCO, Food Link, Thackers, Modern Bakery, Serena and others were engaged to keep up the growing and changing demand. After several days of feeding khichdi, the team successfully transitioned to feeding people puri bhaji, vada pav and pulao meals at least one day of the week to give them a change of taste.
The Distribution Effort
The distribution of meals from Colaba to Palghar required a large team. This was handled by multiple NGOs, with NESH (No One Ever Sleeps Hungry) being the major distributors in Mumbai. YMCA Mumbai, Chhoti Si Asha, Geo Roti Ghar, Feed My Mumbai, RSS, Mumbai Responds, TISS and many more helped the project reach wherever hunger struck in Mumbai. Art of Living supported the distribution with its large team in Vasai and Virar. In all, over 200 volunteers on the ground ensured that for 70 days the meals were delivered every single day on time to the large number of people waiting patiently in queues at numerous locations.
End or a new beginning
As the Lockdown 1.0 was scheduled to come to an end, RCMQN conceptualised the idea of the distribution of Food Kits in order to help the daily wage earners tide over the first two weeks. Each kit containing rice, flour, pulses, sugar, cooking oil, spices and tea was designed to feed a family of four for 15 days. The kits were distributed to carefully identified marginalised communities like hand cart pullers, dabbawalas, transgenders, sex workers, rag pickers and others.
Lockdown 1.0 progressed into lockdown 2.0 and kept extending. Mumbai saw a large exodus of migrants who left the city on foot, hitched rides on trucks and by buses and trains. At this time, it became imperative to think about them and very quickly the team ramped up distribution of theplas, dry snacks, fruit and water at railway stations and exit points from the city. In this endeavour, RCMQN collaborated with the Srimad Rajchandra Trust and others.
Project Feed All in Need has so far fed 60 lakh cooked meals and enabled 40 lakh meals through the kit distribution, thereby touching a number of 1 Crore meals over 70 days. The crying need to feed the hungry people is far from over and Rotary Club of Mumbai Queen’s Necklace aims to keep tapping into its own resources and the generosity of donors to help the homeless and the jobless navigate these trying times.