#WATWB - App to feed the hungry

"The Food we waste is another person's meal"

Mobile App to collect leftover food and reach out to the needy. An innovative initiative by Robin Hood army in Madhya Pradesh, India.  The app named Aahar is being launched under “Annadan Scheme” of the government, wherein food that is left over from functions like marriages will be collected with the help of NGOs for distribution among the needy.  In a country like India where there are 100 million people do not have even one meal a day, this initiative bring smile on the face of hungry and needy people.

This initiative could spread to other part of the country, Feeding India has 450 volunteers in Delhi who pick up and deliver food across 12 zones, calling them hunger heroes. They are trying to promote hyper local food donation through technology, they say that people must be able to donate to the needy within 5kms. It will help fight hunger, says Kawatra.

Most of these initiatives have partnered with restaurants, hostels, caterers and corporate houses to collect excess food every day, which is then delivered to orphanages, old age homes, shelters etc. The food item has a shelf life and strict quality check is done to ensure that food collected is delivered within 90minutes to the needy.

The volunteer says that he decided to start Feeding India after he was horrified by the waste of food at a wedding. There were around 35 dishes, and he wondered what would happen to so much food. He stayed back and to see and was shocked to find heaps of leftovers, enough to feed 10,000 people, was trashed – so much waste at one wedding in a city that has millions of hungry people. Feed India was started to save the wastage of food especially at weddings when there is so many dishes and most of the food goes to the waste as the cooking is always to feed more people than invited.

The logic that the leftover food is enough to feed 10,000 people and could be utilized for millions of hungry people in our country.  According to the CRY (Child Rights and You) 50% of the children in the slums are malnourished. The study report  of 2015 done by CRY also says that India ranks 80^th among the 104 countries on Global Hunger Index, ranking lower than Bangladesh, North Korea and Myanmar.

The answer to dealing with urban hunger lies in creating a supply chain of sustained feeding, and technology can bridge the gap. Kuldip Nair, Delhi Food Banking Network  says that they collect non perishable food items and provide one nutritional meal everyday to 10,000 people at 43 feeding sites in Delhi.

This is an informal network wherein individual and organizations commit themselves to right to food -  while these tech driven feeding programmes are a good initiative they can be only a temporary solution says one member from the Right to food campaign. The real solution lies in creating skills and livelihood opportunities.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/54444524.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/no-food-waste-when-leftover-food-reaches-the-hungry-through-a-mobile-app/story-5KOzDX8AzfFbRihj8zr3bP.html

The co hosts for this month are Inderpreet Uppal,  Slvia Stein, Shilpa Garg, Simon falk, Damyanti Biswas.  Please do visit them.

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