India’s population is over one billion, but it has three times enough food to feed the entire population. Zardozi spoke to Feeding India to find out why so many Indians are still going hungry.
”Hunger kills more people in India every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined,” says Srishti Jain of the organization.
Feeding India has partnered with 150 restaurants, 250 caterers and college canteens and corporations who donate food to their programs in over 20 cities across India, which served thousands of people last year alone. Orphanages, old age homes and shelters for the handicapped are just some of the places that benefit from this program.
“Since these recipients struggle to find a wholesome meal every single day, they accept our food, giving us back blessings and smiles,” says Jain.
This can only be done with a team of over a thousand volunteers called Hunger Heroes, who pick up the food and deliver it . “It is easy to continue life as it is, but only a true hero takes the time to help the ones in need,” says Jain.
Aishwarya Sinha, a 20-year-old Superhero remembers handing out food on Christmas. “We thought that while people around the world will be celebrating and enjoying the day, there would be so many people around us who would go to bed hungry, sleeping on a cement bed, under a star studded blanket.”
Sinha and a team of volunteers went around handing out food when they came across a woman and her children. One of the boys asked her for more to eat. “I laughed and said that the size of the plate is already bigger than his tiny stomach,” says Sinha. That’s when Sinha learned of this child’s suffering. “My children have not eaten anything since yesterday,” said the child’s mother.
The mother and her kids had survived on three rotis the day before. “The woman was so happy to see her children enjoying the meal and folded her hands in gratitude,” says Sinha.
Feeding India hopes that by 2025, India will have set-up the infrastructure to ensure that this mother and other families don’t have to feel the pangs of hunger ever again.
To learn how you can ensure someone doesn’t go to sleep with an empty stomach, visit: http://www.feedingindia.net.