Mumbai: Former Maharashtra top cop D. Sivanandan on Saturday launched a collaborative effort to collect excess food and provide it to the needy.
The project, called Mumbai Roti Bank, is a joint effort between Mr. Sivanandan, the Mumbai Dabbawallas Association, UK-based NRI Nitin Khanapurkar and MUrgency, an emergency response start up.
The initiative provides a boost to a similar effort by dabbawallas of the city, who had, on a smaller scale started collecting excess food from venues of functions like weddings and parties as well as from homes of those willing to donate in south and central Mumbai.
“Over the years, we have seen food being wasted at parties and other events and hence started this initiative around two years ago. Till now, we were only using bicycles and plastic bags but we will be better equipped now and be able to do this in a much more professional manner,” Subhash Talekar, head of the Mumbai Dabbawallas Association, said.
Mr. Sivanandan, who retired as Maharashtra Director General of Police, said, “We are enhancing their capability by providing vehicles, plates and spoons, and a helpline number where people can call in case they have excess food. We have provided one vehicle and have people offering us more, which we will soon include for the initiative. While we are beginning with south and central Mumbai, we aim to eventually cover the entire city as well as Thane and Navi Mumbai. We have carried out a hunger mapping survey in the city to identify the areas where the needy are based.”
Those interested in donating excess food to the needy can now call Mumbai Roti Bank at +91-865580001, which will be operational round-the-clock. All costs of collecting the food and delivering to those in need will be borne by Mumbai Roti Bank.
“With the Mumbai Roti Bank going live, we hope that hotels, restaurants as well as event and party organisers will take advantage and call us when they have extra food, so it can be collected while it is still fresh and distributed among hungry people,” said Mr. Khanapurkar, Executive Director, Advisory Services, KPMG.
