A group of enthusiastic volunteers are providing food collected from homes, restaurants to the lesser fortunate in the city.
Bhubaneswar: Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and terrorism combined. While one child dies from hunger every 10 seconds, one in every eight people sleeps hungry each night. Ironically, 2 per cent of the 850 million hungry people live in countries with food surpluses, not food shortages. Moreover, one-third of the food produced around the world is never consumed.
These are some hard truths related to hunger. Several governments across the world have initiated various steps taken by the governments to eradicate this problem. Even the Odisha government has been supplying rice to the poor at Re 1 per kg, in addition to launching the ‘Aahaar’ scheme, whereby people are provided one meal for just Rs 5.
This apart, some youth groups are also working with the aim of eradicating hunger from in the society. Robin Hood Army, an international volunteer-based organisation engaged in feeding the less fortunate with surplus food collected from community feasts and restaurants.
Since the last one-and-a-half months, the Bhubaneswar chapter of the organisation called ‘Robinhood Army- Bhubaneswar’ has been providing food to the poor and hungry in the capital city every Sunday. According to Sanjeet Behera, a member of the ‘army,’ their aim is to reduce the hunger and wastage of food. “As a part of our food drive, every Sunday we go from one place to another in the Temple City collecting surplus food and distributing them among those who dream of having two square meals a day,” he said.
“We have collaborated with local restaurants, who donate their surplus food to us. Sometimes, they also give us freshly cooked meals. There are many people who call us over telephone and donate food – freshly cooked as well as surplus.”
The RHA collects food in various forms, often as raw materials, and then hand out meals, sometimes in packages. Alternatively, they hold food camps at different places in the city and serve meals from containers. So far, the Robinhood Army has conducted more than 19 such drives in Sailashree Vihar, Capital Hospital and Leprosy Society to name a few providing food to 3,500 people every day. “We have also started conducting night drives in some locations,” Behera said.
Another volunteer, Abhijeet Pradhan said, “The idea is to create self-sustained chapters across the world that will look after their local communities. In the process, they would inspire people to return something to the society, which has bestowed so much on them. The challenge is not lack of food, but making food consistently available to everyone who needs it. In Bhubaneswar, we have more than 90 volunteers who collect food and give them to the lesser fortunate.”
Ananya Sahoo, another member, told Orissa POST, “Sometimes we are faced with nature’s fury, but we still make sure that food is delivered to the needy. Even during days when it rains heavily, as it is now, we provide food to at least 1,500 people daily.”
According to another RHA volunteer, Crojjal Prajna, they are also planning to expand the Bhubaneswar chapter’s reach to other nearby cities like Cuttack and Puri. However, more volunteers are needed to achieve this, she said.
Arindam Ganguly, OP
