Generally, the surplus food at home is either given to maid or put on the roads to feed stray dogs and cows, but now you can put the same in a refrigerator kept at your colony to be served to poor.
Annakshetra Foundation Trust on Wednesday under the programme ‘Ghar Ghar Annakshetra’ has installed a refrigerator near Mahesh Nagar police station at Shri Gopal Nagar in Mahesh Nagar colony where people while going for morning walk can keep the surplus food at the fridge, which later would be collected by the NGO and served to poor and underprivileged people at Muhana Mandi or any other part of the city.
For the first time in India, such initiative has been taken, claims the NGO. Jaipur Mayor Nirmal Nahata was to inaugurate this programme, but he could not come due to some work. The programme was inaugurated by elderly security personnel Babu Lal. The women of the colony came with the surplus food and kept it in the refrigerator.
Uganthi Devi, resident of Shri Gopal Nagar said, “I feel very happy that surplus food at home would now reach the needy people. I will tell other women in the colony to keep the surplus food at the refrigerator”. Similarly, Ram Devi, resident of the same colony said “It is a good initiative and will help in feeding the poor people with the surplus food at home, which otherwise go waste”.
{{/usCountry}}Uganthi Devi, resident of Shri Gopal Nagar said, “I feel very happy that surplus food at home would now reach the needy people. I will tell other women in the colony to keep the surplus food at the refrigerator”. Similarly, Ram Devi, resident of the same colony said “It is a good initiative and will help in feeding the poor people with the surplus food at home, which otherwise go waste”.
{{/usCountry}}The trust founder Dr Vivek Agarwal said “through this programme we have moved a step ahead with a motive to come closer to the people to donate food. This new initiative by Annakshetra aims to avoid wastage of food and to utilize the unserved or surplus food by feeding it to the needy and impoverished”.
In this programme, the residents of the colony have to provide space and security, while refrigerator will be provided by the Trust, he added. He said to initiate this mission a refrigerator has been placed at Shri Gopal Nagar, near Mahesh Nagar police station to give an opportunity to the residents of the colony to become a part of this social cause by keeping their un-served or surplus food in it.
The basis of the programme ‘Ghar Ghar Annakshetra’ is ‘by the people and for the people’. Dr Agrawal said “in next 45 days, 11 such refrigerators would be put in colonies like Malviya Nagar, Raja Park, Subhash Nagar,Mansarovar and other places”.
Annakshetra’s vision is to take this initiative to all the schools which would develop the habit of not wasting food and donate food to help others. It is also aimed to spread this noble initiative by involving the banks, as the banks have round the clock security and issues of security and electricity can be easily handled, he said.
Since November 2010, Annakshetra has been collecting surplus food from the marriages and other huge get- together and serving the same to labourers and their children from nearby villages at Muhana Mandi in Jaipur.
Trust executive director Col. (retd). Ravi Dhingra said “I have heard about this concept but not seen anywhere therefore this is first of its kind of initiative in the entire country”.