From March till August 2020 about 100,000 plus cooked meals were served at Delhi, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Gulbarga and NOIDA. By the time country was under the third phase of lockdown about 9 tonnes of dry ration was distributed in 3 states. The entire Covid Relief Program reached almost 6,500 plus families across 5 states. In addition to these, animal feeding programs were run over a period of three months.
The pandemic demonstrated the fragility of our world. It has laid bare risks ignored for decades: inadequate health systems; gaps in social protection; structural inequalities; environmental degradation; the climate crisis. In a massive effort undertaken by the foundation through its service wing, thousands of people in the city of Delhi, Noida, Hyderabad, Gulbarga and Ajmer were being served food daily for the entire period of the lockdown and even after it.
The largest lockdown in history arrived with a four-hour notice. At 8 pm on March 24, 2020 when Prime Minister appeared on television to announce that starting at midnight the entire country was going to be effectively curfewed to slow the spread of COVID-19. A land as populous and tightly peopled as India suffered a great deal of misery and panic amongst people who were out of their own home. Every body wanted to scramble back with whatever little possessions they could lay their hands onto. The sudden exodus of millions of Indians eking out an existence in the cities to distant villages across India became the immediate victims.
Millions of migrant workers: the men and women who serve the needs of first-world Indias inhabitants as chauffeurs, servants, cleaners, cooks, and construction hands were at sudden lurch about what would happen tomorrow.
As soon as the lockdown was announced our volunteers contacted the DMs and the SDMs officials to understand their needs. The decision to run the community kitchens during the lockdown was taken when the officials said that arranging food would be the biggest burden for them. We built the capacity to feed thousands of people. People in need would stand in queue as volunteers distributed free food packets.
Hot cooked meals was served once a day through multiple community kitchens of the Foundation. The food cooked at these kitchens was being served through different channels. The officials collected food packets from our kitchens every day to serve in emergency services and to serve the homeless. Other than that our own volunteers were engaged in serving the needy and the migrant labours.