KhaanaChahiye: Mumbai is battling hunger along with Covid-19. Again.

Our second round of hunger relief operations began in April 2021, based on the continuous intel that we received from our volunteers, partner organizations on the ground. We kickstarted our operations with 500 cooked meals and ramped up the supply after verifying crucial demand across the city. As we inch towards closing our 6th month of operations, we would like to thank each one of you for your generous contributions and for taking out the time to amplify our movement. 

Our impact at a glance:

• 19,94,994 cooked meals served 
• 50,992 grocery kits distributed to families in distress
• 4 Community kitchens launched
• 2,27,800 meals served through the Community kitchens
• 1,021 grocery kits distributed through our SOS Outreach
• SOS Flood relief for Konkan floods and Cyclone Tauktae in Mumbai, Raigad, and Ratnagiri districts

Our newest Community Kitchen is in Ulhasnagar! This one is in collaboration with the "I am Trans" initiative by Giving Circle & Global Rights Foundation. 

It is managed by Dr. Yoga Nambiar and her collective of transgender individuals.

We have started serving 250 meals.

The Hunger Map Project at KC and the "I am Trans" movement share a common objective - to help our beneficiaries create sustainable livelihood options.

Khaana Chahiye report hunger service is now available on Whatsapp in multiple languages helping us reach the most vulnerable in the greater Mumbai region with our SOS grocery service,

Report Hunger on Whatsapp

Click https://bit.ly/KcWaBot Or message 7669800470  

The Path Forward

As anticipated, the city’s local economy continues to struggle on its path to recovery. The pandemic created a livelihoods crisis among the working class in the country’s financial capital. Most of our beneficiaries, predominantly daily wage earners are struggling to make ends meet. We have been working with collectives and communities to come up with effective solutions to this problem. We have tried to answer some pertinent questions that we get from 

Q. What can be done to support the vulnerable? 

According to our assessment, the local economy will take more time to recover from the crisis. Millions of jobs were lost during the last year and it takes time to recover from such an unanticipated tragedy. We will continue to distribute family grocery kits to the requests that we get on the Report Hunger service on our website and WhatsApp. 

Q. Why is Khaana Chahiye Foundation’s efforts crucial?

We acknowledge the fact that relief is temporary and only sustainable livelihood measures can resolve the problem of hunger in the long term. Our approach to work with communities directly – through our partner organizations, experienced social workers, and our active volunteers will reap positive solutions. One such successful experiment is the Community Kitchen vertical, which started in May 2021. 

Q. Where will the funds be utilized from this campaign?

One of our goals in Khaana Chahiye is to assist the communities that we serve to mobilize resources and start their own ventures to support local livelihoods. As a part of this goal, we have helped local initiatives to start community kitchens. These kitchens serve a dual purpose: serving fresh hot meals while generating employment opportunities aimed at women. We have 3 such kitchens, one each in Kurla, Kalyan, and Ulhasnagar. They cater to daily wage-earning communities who have lost their primary source of income. Many families are still struggling to recover from that loss. We are extending our assistance to this vulnerable population in two forms:

1. Serving cooked meals if they are near our community kitchens
2. Providing them with a family grocery kit through our SOS operations

The funds that we collect will help us to continue with these two operations. Our local network of volunteers and community organizers are constantly helping us to assess the situation on the ground. Their connections and assessment help us to determine the critical areas and devise solutions to address the problem. 

How can YOU help?

There are many ways in which you can help us in our efforts. 

• Contribute to our cause
• Share our fundraiser with your network 
• Volunteer with us
• Follow and amplify our efforts on social media

While there is a feeling of normalcy due to the number of Covid cases going down and the economy opening up with regular traffic on our roads, not much has changed with the informal segment which is overwhelmingly a large part of the labour force.

The economy is opening up as the number of cases are under control in Mumbai and its surrounding areas. However, the stress on economic activities in the informal sector is the same. Most of our beneficiaries are daily wage earners and their livelihoods are messed up. Your contribution, however, fuelled our relief efforts!

As of 28th July, we have made the following impact:

·      19,05,084 total cooked meals served, 10595 meals are currently served daily for homeless beneficiaries and families with no kitchen apparatus.

·      41,276 grocery kits distributed to support families in distress across Mumbai Metropolitan Region

·      975 SOS requests fulfilled where families were supported with grocery kits as emergency aid

·      1,27,400 meals served through the Community kitchen vertical. Our kitchens are at Qureshi Nagar – Kurla, Govandi and Kalyan. 

·      14,200 meals served as emergency relief between 18th July and 22nd July for families affected by heavy rains in different parts of Mumbai.

·      Our Community Kitchen in Govandi completed its operations on 30th June. It was in partnership with TRIPS Development Research Foundation and Tata Power. The kitchen served 22,000 meals during its run.

·      We have made some exceptions in our outreach for families and communities outside Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Our aide reached tribal hamlets in Murbad, Palghar, Dahanu, Naigaon, Ambernath, Khadavli, Shahpur and Vikramgad. 250 kits were also sent to commercial sex workers in Shukrawar Peth, Pune.

In the past week, we have witnessed devastating floods ravaging parts of Maharashtra, especially the coastal region. There have been reports of landslides, waterlogging and loss of infrastructure coming from parts of Konkan. We have received multiple SOS calls from this area, requesting aid in the form of sanitary products, blankets, candles, matchboxes and groceries.

All of these items are crowdsourced and sent to Mahad in Raigad and Chiplun in Ratnagiri. We have established a local network of volunteers who are helping us with outreach towards communities in distress. Our team visited both places and conducted an assessment. Based on our observations, we will be utilizing the funds for:

·      5000 grocery kits to families in flood-affected regions in Maharashtra.

·      Flood relief material: drinking water, dry snacks, biscuits, sanitary pads, towels, napkins, candles, matchboxes, cleaning supplies (soaps, shampoos, detergents).

·      2300 cooked meals from our Community Kitchens daily from Kurla, Kalyan and Ulhasnagar.

·      15,500 grocery kits (500 per day) for our verified list of families in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. All of these beneficiaries are daily wagers who are struggling to make ends meet. 

·      Our “Report Hunger” SOS service has been successfully catering to families in distress. It is now introduced on WhatsApp in our attempt to make it more accessible for our beneficiaries. It can be accessed here: bit.ly/kcreporthunger  

The donations that we receive will be utilized to mobilize resources for these measures urgently. Our team has finalized it in consultation with our partner organizations on the ground and volunteers serving the communities at the grassroots.

We acknowledge that relief measures are temporary but considering the situation on the ground, it is imperative to continue our work and aid those in need.

For any clarification or suggestions, feel free to reach out to us on our social media platform or write to us at contact@khaanachahiye.com.