Over 20k women join ‘roti’ campaign to feed poor during lockdown

TNN | Apr 16, 2020, 04:00 IST

At least 1,000 housing societies and row houses have joined in the campaign

Surat: For Geeta Vaniawala, a housewife in Jehangirpura, cooking five extra rotis has become the routine from the day lockdown was imposed on March 24. She waits for the doorbell to ring in the morning and hands over the rotis to a volunteer from the housing society. These rotis donated by her satiate the hunger of poor hit by the lockdown
Just like Geeta, there are nearly 20,000 women from the housing societies, bungalows and apartments from Vesu, Pal, Adajan, Athwalines etc. who have joined the 'roti campaign' initiated by city-based NGO, Surat Manav Seva Sangh ‘Chhanyado’ to feed the hungry in the city. These women, who are unable to move out of their houses during the lockdown, are indirectly feeding tens of thousands of needy every day.
According to Chhanydo NGO, at least 1,000 housing societies and row houses have joined in the campaign and nearly 1.15 lakh rotis are collected from the households daily.
Chhanydo is running a community kitchen at Amidhara Wadi in Adajan, where about 16 women exclusively cook sabji and chilly pickle and that the rotis collected from the households are packed in the food packet and distributed to some 35,000 people in different parts of the city.
“The most tedious job is to cook rotis and we do not have enough staff to prepare in the required quantity. So, I posted a video appealing women to donate five rotis each. The video went viral on the social media platforms and we started receiving overwhelming response from the housing societies,” says Bharat Shah, president of Chhanyado NGO.
Shah added, “Every day our volunteers from different areas bring 1.15 lakh rotis at our community kitchen. We prepare the food packets each consisting five rotis, sabji and chilli pickle. Majority of the packets are distributed among the migrant population in the industrial areas including Varachhha, Pandesara, Udhna. Also, we are sending the food packets in the villages of Olpaad.”
Rakesh Sethna, a volunteer from Vaishnaodevi Sky apartment in Jehangirpura said, “From our society alone, we are donating more than 6,000 rotis and we will continue to do so till May 3.”