A mom and son in Kandivali run a delivery kitchen, but now, they feed hungry people. Harsh Mandavia and his mom, Heena, used to run a delivery service before the pandemic, now they are serving homemade food for the needy.
A regular customer initiative
Harsh told The Times of India that every day, he and his mom provide food for about 200 to 250 needy people for lunch and dinner. He shared that one of their regular customers, Abhinav Chaudhary, came up to him a few months ago. He said that that customer wished to donate money to feed 100 people.
Since the customer did not want to risk contracting the virus, he asked Harsh to find the needy people. After doing some research, the son found a place outside a Gurudwara. It is the place where they did the first round of feeding. They feed a hundred poor people by serving them a full meal that included roti, sabzi, dal, and rice.
Donations poured after the post
Harsh posted an appreciation post on social media then donations started pouring in. He said that everything began when he shared with the public about the first food donation activity they did. He said that after that, people all over India started donating money online.
The son explained that they received Rs. 11,000 in the first two days. Afterward, they started giving out food for the need daily. He said that he kept posting photos and videos of their food donation drive every week.
View this post on InstagramRaised Rs.3,22,300 in 49 days through #socialmedia and served more than 4500 meals to needy people in Mumbai during #covid19 crisis. . ABHI SAB NORMAL NAI HUA HAI! . Lockdown is on, needy people are still jobless, and the “Feed The Needy” cause continues till 31st July 2020! . Extremely grateful to donors and viewers of these posts who have liked, forwarded and shared. (Keep spreading the word) . We consider ourselves fortunate to be the ‘Food Supply Partner’ of Sukhkarta Dukhharta Mitra Mandal, who conducts this selfless activity for over 500 people everyday. . . We at @harshthaliandparathas, are lucky enough to be operational during this lockdown and cater to food orders for charity and donation from all over India. . . — Tawa roti (made of 100 % wheat atta) costs us Rs.10 and we serve 3 rotis per person during lunch hours along with dal rice and sabzi. — . . You can help us raise this money by making groups and contributing even in bits, because we understand that every drop counts to make an ocean. ( #paytm , #googlepay , #upi, #neft accepted) . My team and I will be personally involved in the food preparation, packaging and distribution to the needy people directly (video footage will be recorded every time). . . DM or whatsapp us on : 91 99208- 95090 for more details. . #charity #foodforneedy #covid19 #foodinspiration #foodforall #lockdown2020 A post shared by Harsh Mandavia (@harsh_mandavia) on Jul 8, 2020 at 8:33am PDT
Donations keep coming because of their posts. Harsh said that they had reached Rs 3.2 lakhs in 49 days from five countries. They have already served more than 5,000 homemade meals for the many hungry people in India. Since they think of the health of the people, they also served more than 13,000 tawa rotis, which are made of whole wheat atta.
Helping needy people
Harsh said that most people who come to seek free food come from needy families in slums and watchmen. There are also coming from the daily wage earners who are jobless for the last three months-people who are BMC garbage collectors, rickshaw drivers, and other underprivileged people.
The son shared that when people waiting in line see his car approaching, they feel elated. The people would shout "roti aagaya, roti aagaya" as they make way for the car. Harsh said that they arranged a sit near the serving counter for one differently-abled lady. The lady keeps waving and blessing them every time they serve her food. He said that incidents such as that encourage them to do more.
The son said that they plan to continuously provide free full meals for those hungry people until the end of July.
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