NGO distributes leftover food to underprivileged

Hyderabad: Hyderabadis' love for food is well-known across India. They love to eat as well as organise feasts for others. Every time a function or party is organised, the host ensures that there's a variety of dishes, plenty for everyone.

However, very often a good quantity of food is left over and finds its way to garbage bins. After a big party at home, the hosts wonder what to do with the excess food. To tackle this issue, an NGO, No Food Waste, ensures that the excess food is collected and distributed to the underprivileged so that nobody sleeps empty stomach.

The NGO believes that wasting food is a crime as it is a wastage of our resources and man hours. On one side the country is fighting to eradicate malnutrition and hunger, on other, a large quantity of food is going down the drain because of lack of awareness.

No Food Waste aims to end food waste and hunger and to make the world 'Hunger Free'. The team recovers surplus leftover food from weddings, parties, and functions and donates it to needy and hungry people.

Kaligotla Venkata, who owns a software development company that works in collaboration with many government organisations across the State, is the Telangana state co-ordinator for No food Waste. He said, "I used to volunteer for Robin Hood Army, earlier, but had to take a break for my daughter's wedding. That's when people from No Food Waste contacted me and asked me to be their state co-ordinator."

"I was more than happy. We collaborated and did some research and listed out 500 to 1,000 hunger spots across the twin cities. These spots are identified by our volunteers after doing a survey on number of poor people found at various spots. We avoid those places where there are already other organisations distributing food so that we can cover as many spots as possible."

Once the NGO receives a call from event management companies or hotels about surplus food, the volunteers of No Food Waste collect the leftover foods and distributes it at the nearest hunger spot in their van.

Started from Coimbatore in 2014 by social activists Padmanaban Gopal and Dinesh, the initiative launched its services in Hyderabad from October 7. So far it has served more than 10,000 destitute, orphans and needy people across the twin cities.

With dedicated food recovery units including a helpline number, food recovery vehicle, vessels, mobile application and volunteers work together for effective process execution. In just a month, the NGO has some 4o dedicated volunteers who give their valuable time in serving the needy. These volunteers approach us after seeing our updates and awareness programmes on social media platforms.

"We are looking for more volunteer support. If young and dynamic youth can spare 1 to 2 hours in a week, then we can see a lot of change in fighting malnutrition and hunger," he added.