A Tweet and Twenty Million Meals
A very existential crisis was anticipated in India when a strict nationwide lockdown was announced on 25th March 2020 in response to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. Within hours, shops, offices, businesses, restaurants, theatres, and transport, all modes of life were to be shut. This lockdown was sure to hurt the entire country, but the worst-hit were the marginalized and vulnerable communities – migrant laborers, senior citizens, the poor. With a complete shutdown in economic activity, Michelin-starred chef Vikas Khanna anticipated a significant food crisis and was convinced to help his people in this time of need. In a desperate urge to help, he sent out messages through his Twitter account asking people if they needed food or knew of people who needed it. The flood of messages that he received made him realize this was not the right way to help people and that he needed better organization. So he started targeting orphanages, senior citizen homes, leprosy centers, and slums – spaces with a kitchen. Sitting miles away in New York, he thought providing dry ration to these places was the best possible solution to help a section of the vulnerable community. However, while attempting to provide for a senior citizen home in Bengaluru came his first failure. The truck driver responsible for delivering the tonnes of dry ration disappeared with it and left no means to track him.
Failure taught Khanna that if he were to continue maintaining a sustainable supply-chain model, he needed reliable and efficient partners. He collaborated with the National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), who was already at the forefront of providing food and other necessities amid the Covid-19 crisis and the vagaries affecting India’s eastern and western coasts. The NDRF led by Mr. Satya Narayan Pradhan agreed to help with the logistics wherever their battalions had jurisdiction. With a responsible partner and continued efforts, almost 7 million packets of dry food and cooked meals were distributed throughout the country. As the Feed India initiative garnered momentum, rice companies like India Gate and Daawat joined hands to donate rice bundles. HungerBox, a food technology company, offered that its kitchens in Mumbai and Noida to cook over 20,000 meals every day (Bhagat, 2020). Financial giant PayTM also became a sponsor for this initiative in May.
Food did come as a rescue to many affected by the crisis, but Khanna realized that his efforts were not reaching one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups – the migrant workers. These workers had no work in the cities they had migrated to and thus no financial gain. They were undertaking arduous journeys on foot to reach their homes. To a community as disadvantaged as theirs, bundles of dry ration were of no use. At this time, Khanna partnered with one of the biggest gas companies in India, Bharat Petroleum, which has numerous gas-filling stations along the Indian highways. Kitchens were set up at these stations, and cooked meals were provided to all those who halted here, exhausted from traveling vast distances only to get back home. Perhaps, no words can express the pain that a human feels when the stomach rumbles for food, and the relief sensed after eating the first morsel. Such is the power of hunger and food.
A simple message posted on a social media platform has resulted in a full-blown initiative that not only promises to provide food but also basic necessities to all those who are vulnerable.
Intending to provide adequate means to take care of themselves during menstruation, the Feed India initiative decided to provide sanitary pads to women across all sections. As of 10th July 2020, over 2.5 million sanitary napkins have been distributed. 2 million slippers were distributed to migrant workers, who were journeying at times without any footwear. The Feed India initiative has not only rendered food but also extended its ambit of service by making available products that would be considered inconsequential by many on any given normal day. Twitter and Twitterati have been at the forefront of bringing to light this ongoing process of feeding millions of Indians and #FeedIndia is doing the rounds.
Let us take a quick look at what prompted Khanna to take up this initiative. Having being born with a club foot, Khanna mostly had sympathizers and no friends and spent his days helping and cooking in the family kitchen with his grandmother. Although he was born in a Hindu family, he lived in Amritsar among many Sikhs and was profoundly influenced by the service carried on at the Sri Harmandir Sahib, popularly known as the Golden Temple. The Sri Harmandir Sahib runs the largest community kitchen not only in India but in the world by feeding almost 50,000 people every day. It was the very gurudwaras in New York that sheltered and provided him with food when he struggled as a brown man in a white-world working as a dishwasher and delivery-man to make ends meet.
Sitting miles away in another continent and yet being able to help one’s countrymen is possible in today’s world largely due to the presence of digital media. One could not have imagined undertaking such an enterprise, say, during the Spanish flu. Even if one thought and undertook a step towards achieving it, it would not have been possible to accomplish it on a scale as large as what we are seeing today. This is primarily because communication is so easy and making people aware is now at one’s fingertips. Maybe the fundamental reason why this initiative was born is now being overshadowed by the achievements of it, let us keep in mind that it was a simple message posted through a social media post that has led to feeding over 20 million people. This in itself speaks volumes about the power of digital and social media. If used correctly, it is possible to bring wonderful changes in times such as these. We, as humans, have the power to make these changes possible.
References;
Bhagat, Shalini Venugopal. “This Chef Has a Michelin Star and a Mission: Feeding Millions in India’s Lockdown.” The New York Times , The New York Times, 27 May 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/world/asia/vikas-khanna-india-hungry.html.
Bhuyan, Avantika. “How Vikas Khanna Provided 9 Million Meals to Vulnerable Indians under Lockdown.” Livemint , 3 June 2020, www.livemint.com/mint-lounge/features/how-vikas-khanna-provided-9-million-meals-to-vulnerable-indians-under-lockdown-11591155124530.html.
Khanna, Vikas (@TheVikasKhanna). July 10th. Milestone for #FeedIndia from 7000 miles. 100 days, 20 million meals, 2.5 million Sanitary Pads, 200,000 Slippers, 28,000 PPE Kits, To celebrate this moment I’ll be doing a live #TwitterChat at 7 PM (IST) and 9.30 AM (EST). Just post your questions/comments at #FeedIndia. 09 July, 2020. 21:57. Tweet.
Pema, Tenzin. “In Michelin-Star Chef Vikas Khanna’s Mission to Feed India, Failure Is Not an Option.” Edited by Dipti Nair, YourStory.com , 5 June 2020, yourstory.com/2020/06/michelin-star-chef-vikas-khanna-feed-india-mission-ten-million-meals.
Pti. “COVID-19: Chef Vikas Khanna Distributes Dry Ration Meals across India.” The Hindu , The Hindu, 15 May 2020, www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/food/covid-19-michelin-star-chef-vikas-khanna-distributes-dry-ration-meals-across-india/article31581532.ece.
