An Icy Tales Exclusive
Food Bank in Chennai, everyone knows the struggle of street dwellers to feed themselves three square meals.
You do, and I do. The question is, what do we do about it? We hope. We hope to see a change; we hope to end poverty. We hope they are being taken care of. That’s about it!
But while we still drown in the sea of hope, Sneha Mohandoss, a 23-year-old Viscom graduate from Chennai, has built the lifeboat of change by starting a drive called The Food Bank.
Having a big picture of seeing a nation where no single person goes hungry, Sneha decided to start a charity in her hometown, Chennai.
The concept of the Food Bank in Chennai is quite simple: While cooking food for their families, the members of this group also cook extra food for the poor. Through Facebook or Whatsapp, they then inform Sneha once the food is packed and ready for distribution. She sends her volunteers to collect the food packets and distributes them to the street dwellers in different areas.
While some of the poor are apprehensive, many receive the food in gratitude.
What is unique about this drive is that Sneha and her volunteers do not just give out food packets from a hotel or any left from their home but provide the poor with fresh, home-cooked food. She feels that when one helps, one must help to the best of their ability. The weak and poor deserve home-cooked healthy food, not just any food.
This drive saw its inception in June, and within one month, Food Bank distributed fifty-five packets per day to the poor in T.nagar.
Food Bank started as a Facebook group with her close friends and relatives and soon had 2895 members from all over Chennai.
I started the group on Facebook because most people spend their time there, and many of them might be interested in this, but they just need a connecting point,” she said.
The food bank in Chennai saw members increase in the first week of July, and orders poured into different areas. Sneha then created Whatsapp groups for each site to make the process easier. She has volunteered to collect in T.nagar, Nungambakkam, Adyar, Perambur, Kilapuk, Ashoknagar, Saidapet, West Mabalam, and Chetpet food from their respective areas.
The seed of distributing food to the poor was planted in her childhood as she saw her grandparents do the same. So as she grew up, she initially started by giving food to the people in the Sai Baba temple every Thursday.
But one day, after hearing an announcement on the radio regarding the lack of efforts made to help the poor in dealing with hunger issuer, she decided to change the once-a-year routine to an everyday packaging and distribution of food.
She expressed her hope of eradicating hunger from India when she said, “In the next few years, I wish to see every street dweller sleep in peace having had their three meals for the day.”
The volunteers have distributed more than 12,00 packets in Chennai to date.
This humanitarian work by the food Bank volunteers is a light to the world that one must break out of their “hope zone” and start making efforts to change the lives of the less fortunate. You can also help if you want to donate to food banks.
Last Updated on by kalidaspandian
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