As per a report published by International

“It is usually after lunch or dinner that people give away food. It was Sivanandan sir, who provided us with a car to make things easier for us.However, the financial capital of India holds the largest network of dabbawalas, whose daily routine involves delivering food from homes to offices. “So far, we have identified places like Tata Memorial Hospital, KEM hospital, and Sion hospital as target areas to send food to,” says Sivanandan.While the dabbawalas are well aware of the pockets to cater to, the bank also has a counsellor onboard who will help them in hunger mapping. Shweta Mangal, director of MUrgency, which is supporting Mumbai Roti Bank with 24×7 helpline numbers explains that the vehicles will be parked at Shivaji Park and the pickup time will be between 4 pm to 12 am. The minimum quantity has to be for 20 people to start with and we will not take any dairy products,” explains Shweta. We also have disposable cutlery in the vehicle to serve people,” adds SivanandanThe service, starting officially from today, is just a call away and will be available between South Mumbai to Dadar.

Now, thanks to the duo behind the Roti Bank, the food will be carried in stainless steel utensils.Seeing the potential in this section of the workforce, retired IPS officer D.“As it is Koala Faux Fur Fabrics recent, you will see a lot of action happening in next few days.Every morning, if one were to walk down to a train station, they’d find  men sporting white cap, shouldering lunchboxes wrapped in cases, or rushing towards a train with a trolley-full of dabbas, balanced on their heads. Each manages around 500 dabbas, with their days ending in bringing  back the empty tiffin boxes.“We have been distributing the leftovers from lunchboxes to poor people for the past two years on our own.The brainchild of Sivanandan and his UK-based friend Nittin Khanapurkar, the aim of establishing Mumbai Roti Bank is to bridge the gap between people who are willing to donate food and those who are in need of food. Eventually, however, the existence of the vehicle led to a whole other project — Mumbai Roti Bank. 

As per a report published by International Food Policy Research Institute in 2017, India ranks at 100th position on the Global Hunger Index among 119 countries. But we didn’t have a vehicle to carry all the food. These vehicles will be installed with GPS and the driver, who is a dabbawala, is going to be provided with a cell phone.. And we have also got many people coming forward wanting to donate more vehicles.  Food served to those in need by dabbawalas“We have one vehicle, two more are to come.

And, who better to help out with this initiative than dabbawalas, who come across leftovers in lunch boxes on a daily basis,” explains Sivanandan. These dabbawalas have become so much a part of the city’s fabric that one often overlooks their existence in the daily rush. Nittin and I felt the need to return our share to society. At the moment we have 200 dabbawals working on the initiative,” says Subhash Talekar, Mumbai dabbawala chief.You can call 8655580001 or 9111891118, should you wish to give away food. Sivanandan pitched in with a vehicle to help the dabbawalas in their endeavour to feed the city’s populace.Thus far, these lunch deliverymen had been using plastic bags to deliver the leftover food to the needy. “There are 190 million people who go without food each day in this country.In the long run, Mumbai Roti Bank plans to tie-up with restaurants, hotels and target people having parties at home. We wanted to deal with this issue separately. But we want to take it a little slow for now,” Shweta signs off

Leave a comment