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Food delivery platform Swiggy has partnered with various commercial kitchens, NGOs and State governments to provide daily meals to thousands of underprivileged, daily wagers and stranded migrant labourers who have limited access to food during the 21-day lockdown, the company said.
The ‘Hope, Not Hunger’ initiative was launched last week to support the Delhi government’s programme to feed the needy. Swiggy helped organise the preparation and distribution of nutritious meals twice a day across relief camps in Delhi with the support of partners such as Compass Kitchens, Lite Bite Foods and SmartQ. The relief effort was scaled to Mumbai with the help of NGOs Pratham, HelpAge India and Yuva, with Elior India acting as the food supply partner.
Since then, the company said it has taken the initiative to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Chennai and Kolkata, supplying over 75,000 meals daily. I-PAC and other corporate entities have also come forward to source and expand the food supply to additional cities through their network of NGOs. While feeding the hungry, the initiative has also helped set things in motion for these kitchens and restaurant staff during these difficult times, Swiggy said.
Scaling up
Having served over 2,50,000 meals so far, Swiggy is in the process of crowdsourcing funds from corporates and individuals in order to scale the initiative to other parts of the country. The goal is to serve 5,00,000 meals daily.
Speaking about the initiative, Sriharsha Majety, CEO, Swiggy, said: “These are challenging times for the service industry, including the food sector. There are restaurants that run the very real risk of shutting down permanently due to lack of business. This, in turn, has the potential to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of kitchen workers, cooks and support staff. Considering the nature of our business, we are in a unique place to contribute by making something as essential as food available to the needy while providing business opportunities for our restaurant and kitchen partners, so that we can together make it through to the other end of this crisis.”
Swiggy has also set up a platform on Milaap for individual . The donation is voluntary and is eligible for deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, for Indian donors.
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