Due to coronavirus, India was in a complete lockdown from March 23rd till the end of May. During this period, millions of contract labours as well as people working in informal sectors lost their jobs and had no means left to feed their families. The situation forced many of them to live on the streets. The lockdown is now slowly being eased, but the misery of these people continues.  Although some economic activities have restarted, not all of these people have jobs and many also took out loans to survive during lockdown to pay their rent etc.  Having no option left to survive in the cities, millions of them started walking back to their villages located hundreds of kilometres away.

Read this article from the BBC explaining the situations of migrants walking home.
The Indian migrants dying to get home 

No one wants to walk hundreds of kilometres in scorching heat if they had enough food and a place to sleep. To help them to be able to stay in place and get through this crisis, a very good friend of mine from university, Raghav, together with his father, Mr Himanshu Kumar has distributed free food to more than 13000 people in the last 50 days. They started by cooking around 300 meals daily at their home and distributing them with the help of various NGOs and Police around New Delhi.  Each meal cost Rs. 35/- or just €0.42 to prepare. Throughout the lockdown, they were able to feed more than 8000 people in need with this initiative. This has been done through their social community initiative called "Food Religion home kitchen" in Gurgaon, near New Delhi (see at the end of this page for more details).  As the situation worsened they started distributing masks, hand disinfectants, water, sugar, ORS  (oral rehydration salts), milk, buttermilk, biscuit packets, bread loaves, bananas, dry roasted whole gram, soaps, and masks to help as many people as possible.  

Being an Indian living in Europe, I wanted to help them in whatever way I could. Thus, I started this fundraiser and supported their noble initiative with around €3500 that was raised (see at the end of this page for information about how this campaign started). But the problems are far from over yet. The daily wagers and their families who stayed in Gurgaon and New Delhi instead of walking back to their villages need food to eat. To support much more people every day, Raghav and his team are now distributing food kits.

Each food kit costs Rs. 600 or €7 and lasts 10 days for a family of 4 people. 
It includes:
5 kg Flour
2 kg Rice
2kg Pulses
0.5 kg of oil
Salt and spices such as turmeric, red chilli powder, and cumin
Masks
Soap

The food kit items that were chosen are easier to acquire and can be stored for a longer period without cooling in India's hot summer climate. This would help the people in need to at least make it through the current crisis without hunger. 

We have come a long way, but this humungous task cannot be sustained without more support and funds.
Please help!! with a donation of
€15  -  2 families of 4 can eat for 10 days
€50   - 8 families of 4 can eat for 10 days
€100  - 15 families of 4 can eat for 10 days

Funds collected through this campaign are transferred to “Food Religion Home Kitchen” in India and the donors will receive a confirmation that their contribution has securely reached this project and being used exclusively for this purpose only. 100 % of the funds raised will be spent on supplies and getting them to those in need. The supplies are bought directly from the wholesalers and payment is made upon receipt of an invoice while maintaining a record of every transaction.  For daily updates and progress you can also follow their Instagram page:

Instagram Page 

Let’s all come together and make their lives a bit easier.



Siddharth


50 days of the initiative.



Food Kit



Left: Food-kits ready for distribution; Right: Raghav with Food-kits 

Distribution of kits to the people in need


Distribution of kits to the people in need




Start of the campaign


---19 April 2020 ---

Due to coronavirus, India is in a complete lockdown till 3rd of May. This means that millions of daily wagers have no means of income to feed themselves or their families for the coming weeks. Many have no shelter left due to economic activities in cities coming to a stop and are forced to live on the streets. In many cases, some families even have run out of donated ration.

You might have seen sad pictures of hundreds of thousands of people waiting to get home or waiting to get food. They are not privileged like us to self-isolate or social distance themselves. For us living in Europe, this situation is not imaginable. Being an Indian living in Europe and not being able to help people in need on the ground makes me sad. But it does not stop me to contribute to the cause. A very good friend of mine from university, Raghav, together with his father, Mr Himanshu Kumar, has started a home kitchen called “Food Religion Home Kitchen” in Gurgaon, near New Delhi earlier this year to serve people in and around their posh society. But, now in the current crisis, they have taken up the task of cooking food at their home kitchen in the region to serve the poor and the needy people for free. They themself are not an NGO rather its a community social service being done from home and collaborating with other home-kitchens in the region for this purpose intending to serve only till the current crisis in India lasts.

With their team of 7 people - his family, three cooks, many friends as volunteers they have cooked and served more than 5000 needy people for free in the last 15 days.  5 other families have also joined the initiative, cooking 10 meals each day. Together, they are cooking around 350 meals everyday. For the delivery of food, they have collaborated with non-profit NGOs like Mother’s Margam of Charity and Volunteers and others.  The NGOs and Police provide them with information of locations and people to serve who are in actual need. Each meal is nutritional, wholesome and is hygienically cooked, comprising healthy Indian staples like Rice with Dal Curry or Rice with Kadhi.

But this humungous task cannot be long sustained without more support and funds. To support their noble initiative sitting in Europe, I have started this fundraising campaign. They have raised funds to serve 4000 meals till now, but much more funds are needed as the demand is endless. Each meal costs just Rs. 35/- or just 0.42 € to prepare. So even with a small contribution, meals can be made available to many, many more people in need. No contribution is small.

Please help!! A donation of 20€ would result in one meal for 47 people; 50€ for 120 people; 100€ for 240 people; 500€ for 1200 people.

Funds collected through this campaign would be transferred to “Food Religion Home Kitchen” in India and the donors would receive an update on their contribution reaching securely and being used in full for this purpose only. 100 % of the funds raised would be spent on supplies, cooking food and serving it to those in need. The supplies are bought directly from the wholesalers and payment is made upon receipt of an invoice while maintaining the record of every transaction.  For daily updates and progress you can also follow their Instagram page:

Instagram Page 

Let’s all come together and make their lives a bit easy.


Siddharth





Daily underprivileged kids wait for food to eat.

Migrants and daily wagers are being served daily



The cooks cooking food while maintaining proper hygiene



Food ready to be served



One of the Corona-Volunteer packing food to serve.




Serving food together with NGOs