See What This Group Does to Feed the Hungry

According to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, one-third of the food produced annually for human consumption around the world is lost or wasted.In India, it's sad to see that millions go to bed hungry and that the primary reason for this is not insufficient food production but excessive food wastage. Apart from individual households, restaurants and food retailers are the biggest food wasters. At such critical times, a team of volunteers are doing something that will inspire you to be the change. Every Sunday, a group of people sporting green t-shirts take to the streets with packed food like vada pav, khichdi and parathas to serve the homeless across different cities. Interestingly, this is not a government initiative but a collective effort of two friends, Anand Sinha and Neel Ghose, who have collaborated with different restaurants and eateries in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bangalore to 'serve the poor and destitute'.

What do they do?Meet the Robin Hood Army that started this yeoman's service about two months back with only sixvolunteers and today they have around 120 volunteers in five cities. It is interesting to know that they don't take "waste" food but "leftovers" to feed the needy. Moreover, some of the eateries have even decided to prepare fresh food. Gurgaon based restaurant Kebab Xpress provides them 100 fresh vada pavs, while the late-night delivery service Midnight Munchies provides fresh khichdi and parathas along with some other popular restaurants that have joined the initiative.

How did it start?The idea is modeled after a similar organization called 'Re-food' in Portugal that works towards elimination of both hunger and food waste in the country. Neel Ghose's volunteered at this organization and was so inspired by the concept that he decided to replicate the model in India."We used to do this earlier but on a much smaller scale," Sinha said, adding that Ghosh and he have been friends for the past five years. They first started with Delhi where they drove around the city to identify the areas of operation and initially chose the Ring Road area, AIIMS metro station and Nizamuddin. "Then we got in touch with a few restaurant owners, spent time with them to make them understand how they could give something back to society," says Sinha.

After getting the eateries on board, they decided to make a Facebook page to post pictures and share their vision - and also give a credible face to their initiative. The idea worked and now they have around 40 volunteers from different walks of life who accompany them in collecting and distributing food packages. After receiving an overwhelming response in Delhi, they spread their campaign to other cities. Why the name?Their catchy name has been derived from the fictional English hero, Robin Hood who robbed the rich and distributed the booty among the poor. Their initiative is an attempt to show "how individuals can make a difference in the society if they want to." The Robin Hood Army works to get surplus food from restaurants across to the less fortunate people in cities across India.

What can you do?Sinha admits that his work provides him and his partner greater satisfaction. This collective effort has enabled them to feed around 1,600 homeless every Sunday in the five cities, but Sinha revealed they want to make it an everyday affair because "one Sunday is just not enough". Anyone can participate or volunteer for the cause and all you need to do is devote two hours in a week.
With inputs from IANS

Picture Courtesy: Facebook/Robin Hood Army