I was fortunate enough to interview Mr. Mohit Shah and Mrs. Kinnari Shah, who have started a unique initiative to help the poor people by distributing vegetables in different parts of the city.
“One day I was buying vegetables from the local vendor and there was a poor woman standing beside me and gazing at the vegetables. Seeing this, I got an urge to ask her that why is she gazing at vegetables and why isn’t she buying any of them. After interacting with her I came to know that due to poverty and high prices of vegetables they haven’t seen vegetables in their kitchen since last six months. They cannot afford to eat vegetables and can’t even think of buying fruits. I gave her all the vegetables which I had bought for our family. But this incident left a very deep pain inside me. Soon, I came up with an idea to distribute vegetable amongst the poor people of our city. I discussed this idea with my husband and he readily agreed to it. He told me that God has blessed us with more than we had asked for, so only way we can thank God is by doing our bit for the society. He said that we have various expenses which can be reduced and that savings can be used for vegetable distribution.
It has been eight years since we are doing this activity. We distribute vegetables and fruits thrice a week. Initially, we had started with 300kg vegetables a week and now we distribute around 1500kg vegetables a week. We buy vegetables from Jamalpur and go for distribution in different part’s of our city. We have got an amazing support from people, like the vegetable vendor doesn’t charge any transportation cost, many of times the whole sellers gives us extra 50-100kg fruits for free and tell us to distribute it. One time cost to buy vegetables is around 3000 to 4000 ₹. We distribute cabbage, bottle gourd, tomato, cauliflower, carrot, radish, sugarcane, sweet limes, muskmelon, bananas and much more. Like today, we are distributing Papaya’s. We even distribute mangoes during the season. Over the years we have learnt that Pappad is the favorite amongst the poor, so now we have started distributing it too with the vegetables. We usually spend around 10 lacs annually after this activity. We also provide food grains to the needy families and also provide for their medical expenses. We want to help poor people in whatever way we can. The almighty has blessed us by giving an opportunity to make others lives better. We don’t accept donations from people, instead we urge them to do the same according to their financial capacity.
We have only one message to the people, that try to help poor people in whatever way possible. The happiness and satisfaction you will receive is priceless. Believe me, charity is an addiction, and we are glad that we have been addicted to it.”
Submitted By: Pray Bhavishi, Humans Of Amdavad
