The year of the pandemic has caused several industries to come to a standstill. As the workforce functions largely from home in Maharashtra, one of the majorly affected services has been that of Mumbai's Dabbawalas. The famous community is known in the city for collecting home-cooked meals from various individuals and delivering the fresh food to office workers. Now that offices remain closed, the service of the dabbawalas remained mostly untapped. Mumbai's top restaurants are now partnering with them to deliver meals across the city.
Restaurants such as SOCIAL, Smoke House Deli and Salt Water Café are now collaborating with the dabbawalas in a one-of-a-kind initiative. Orders from these restaurants in the Lower Parel, Bandra (West), and BKC areas will be fulfilled by them starting this week. More and more dabbawalas will come on board this partnership in future as well. The idea is to encourage customers to order directly from the restaurants and get a discount of up to 25% plus free home delivery as well.
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Calling them the backbone of the city, famous restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani said, "Mumbai's dabbawalas are the backbone of the city, and partnering with them to weather the second wave is the best thing we can do for each other. Ordering directly is helping to provide employment to our dabbawalas, who have lost their livelihoods due to the pandemic. We need to support each other through these trying times, and this is Impresario's way of meaningfully extending a helping hand. We're hopeful that this association will trigger the rest of the hospitality industry to employ them too."
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The dabbawalas will also be serving as delivery executives for a new 'Ghar Ka Khana' meal service, which is a subscription-based service started by SOCIAL. The healthy, home-cooked meals can be subscribed at a price of Rs. 6,000 plus taxes per month, and will be available across Khar, Vikhroli, Versova, and Lower Parel from 24th May, 2021.