NGO takes up feeding the hungry on roads

Hyderabad: A quite number of poor people go to sleep with empty stomachs for days. On the other hand, we come across many incidents of excess food being consigned to dustbins.

Noting the wastage of food, which otherwise would have alleviated the hunger pangs of the poor and orphans, an NGO, Safa Baitul Mal (SBM), has arisen to the occasion. It hit upon an idea and has come up with an initiative to feed the needy by collecting leftover food from the IT companies. It stores such collected food properly and distributes it among the people at Kishan Bagh area.

"This NGO has been feeding the homeless, underprivileged and marginalised families for the last two years at Kishan Bagh area. A variety of food gets left over in the IT companies every day and it is usually carted off to dustbins.

We have approached them and also suggested that instead of wasting the food, they could give the leftover to us for distributing it to the needy," said Mufti Fayyaz, who is in charge of SBM. At present, the NGO volunteers visit IT companies and collect the food. So far, two companies Google and Amazon at Hi-Tec City readily came forward to partake of the noble initiative of the not-for-profit organisation.

"Every day in the afternoon we collect the remaining food and then with the help of 10 volunteers, we pack it in aluminium foils and around 7 pm our two autos make rounds in the streets near hospitals and slums to offer the food to the needy people," added Fayyaz.

This unique organisation was founded by Maulana Ghayas Ahmed Rashadi to help the needy at Kishan Bagh. With help of 10 volunteers, they are presently able to deliver meals to around 500 people each day. They spend around Rs 40,000 for food packaging and auto maintenance expense every month.

Apart from this leftover food distribution, the NGO also conducts various social services that include donating books to students of government schools, disturbing old clothes and blankets, providing free medical service etc. "We are planning to expand other drives in the other area also. The NGO started in 2017 and is run by crowdfunding. Another NGO Glowtide is also helping us in our mission," added Fayyaz.