Online food aggregator Zomato has launched 'home-style mini-meals' to respond to an increasing demand for simple, nutritious meals sought by COVID-positive persons in home isolation. Zomato founder Deepinder Goyal on Tuesday tweeted that over the past few days there has been a surge in demand on the app for "home style food for people battling poor health". Responding to that, the company has "launched home style mini-menus" in partnership with "thousands of restaurants across the country". The new feature will be available in locations covering about 85 per cent of the company's order volume.
Elaborating on the "ghar jaisa khana", Mr Goyal tweeted, "everyone whose parents are struggling with health, cannot cook, or have no help - please order for them".
The COVID-19-induced lockdown last year changed many people's relationship with food. With limited supermarket stocks, shuttered restaurants and an unbelievable amount of time at home, foodies, including kitchen noobs, were forced to make the best of whatever was available in the pantry. But, now, with the second wave of COVID-19 hitting India hard, cooking is no longer an adventure or pastime that it was a year ago. The pandemic has left an increasing number of people sick who need nutritious food as much as medication for a quick recovery.
Mr Goyal wrote in a third tweet, "We are adding more such mini menus to existing and new locations on a war-footing," said Mr Goyal in another tweet, while thanking all the "restaurant partners who were quick to respond and do this with us".
Many users appreciated this gesture by Zomato. While Pallav Jain applauded the "simple" yet "great initiative", Sanjeet Rohilla felt this was "much needed" because he himself craved home-cooked food during his isolation days.
Recently, Zomato also added another feature on its app that enables priority delivery of food meant for COVID-related emergencies. Using this option, those ordering the food can alert the restaurants that the order is meant for COVID-related patients or their families. The restaurant will deliver such orders on priority.