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At Ambala Cantt’s Roti Bank, free protein-rich diet for Covid patients
Started by Vinay Mehta and his friends in 2017, the Roti Bank has a kitchen and a staff of five-six employees who prepare and distribute food in disposable plates
While serving in the National Service Scheme (NSS) during his college days at Karnal’s Dyal Singh College in the late 1980s, young Vinay Mehta was inspired to feed the needy.
After shifting to Ambala for employment, he and his friends used to organise open kitchens on Mahashivratri for many years, but found that there were many such organisations doing to the same.
Later in 2017, he along with his friends raised a Roti Bank at the old building of the civil hospital in Ambala Cantt and started serving free one-time food and tea. Now, they have a kitchen and a staff of five-six employees who prepare and distribute food in disposable plates.
Catering to 150-170 patients
Talking about his initiative, Mehta said that as people started contributing, they increased the number of plates and started serving it twice to patients and their attendants. “As per the advice of the doctors, now we are serving a protein-rich light diet including almonds in the morning and meals thrice a day including paneer and fruits to the infected patients. Currently, we are catering to around 150-170 patients, but not their attendants,” said Mehta, who is also a BJP worker.
The Roti Bank that is run by 10 permanent members contributing on yearly basis is grabbing attention after state health and home minister Anil Vij on Friday praised the facility in his constituency and appealed to the residents to replicate the model in other districts of Haryana.
The minister tweeted: “All social, political, commercial, religious and other organisations in the state are requested to run ‘Roti Bank’ for Covid patients, as is being done at civil hospital, Ambala Cantt.”
Professor Vinay Malhotra, a retired principal, said, “They’ve adopted a hygienic and a smooth system to serve food at the doorstep of the patient, which is prepared at a kitchen at the hospital. We occasionally donate to them. Even patients who have had their meal once return after months to donate.”
