Source: The Times of India | Image Courtesy: thepollinationproject
There are many one who wants to be an entrepreneur and create jobs, but very few of them will able to think on basic things like feeding someone. Everyone is looking for a better job which suits them, but what for those who don’t even have money to even eat. Padmanaban Gopalan & his 2 friends Sudhakar & Dinesh have focused on the basic thing such as hunger. They have started an initiative called No Food Waste. They collect excess food from events like weddings, Parties, etc. & distribute it among hungry people in Coimbatore.
These city boys are actively working on this since Oct. 2014. They collect excess food from hotels, weddings, parties, etc that could be packed & give to the hungry in Coimbatore. Earlier when they asked for sponsors then people are not taking them seriously. They just ignored them, but they will continue their work to feed hungry people.
One day they got to know about a US based NGO, Pollination Project & they applied there. And fortunately they are among those four finalists who are selected within 150 projects who are working on human rights, social justice, animal advocacy, environment, arts activism & women’s rights; wrote Ari Nessel, founder & director of pollination project. The voting closed on 17 July & there hard work pays off. They are the winner of that pollination project only based on public voting. They won by 4000 votes. Padmanaban said that he got to know about this funding through a friend & applied for it. They won $1000 as funding to proceed there good work further. He has now launched a Zero Hunger Hours Campaign on World Food Day i.e. on 16 October between 12:30 PM to 01:30 PM, when they would feed several hungry people.
They have already written to various international NGOs to make it a global phenomenon & they are getting positive responses. Previously they used to spend their own funds for packing & transporting the food, but after winning this award their work becomes easier. The team is planning to expand their project to Tirupur, Erode, Salem, Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri.
Soon he is planning to launch a mobile application that helps people to look for locations where extra food could be donated. Map & GPS system is also in that application to guide people to show 100 spots where excess food could be delivered. They are launching the Application & Zero Food Hour Campaign on 2nd October. The idea is to stop wasting food & give it to the needy. Meanwhile the team is trying to communicate to the city corporation to extend it to all the wards & zones. Padmanaban said that if the civic body provides them land where food can be stored in cold storage then it will be much easier for them to transport food. And more people will know that where to give there excess food & this helps to create more awareness.
Don’t waste your food, donate it. An initiative can change the world.
