Hunger has been prevalent in our country for centuries now. Even today, 14% of our population is undernourished. Estimates suggest, at the current rate, it will take between 23 years to 50 years to completely eradicate hunger from the face of our country. The only way to reduce the consequences of this monumental challenge is by safeguarding and promoting access to nutritious, safe, and affordable diets meals to the vulnerable populations of our country.
As one of the most prominent Indian NGOs, Annamrita focuses on providing nutritious and high-quality food relief to underprivileged communities.
On 25th March, 2020, when the nation came to a standstill to contain the spread of a pandemic, lakhs of people lost access to income, resources, and daily meals. At this point, the Annamrita Foundation decided to leverage its kitchens across the nation to do more than just serve mid-day meals. We began delivering healthy and hygienic COVID relief meals to those stranded in the lockdown.
More than two years later, we are delivering over 3,00,000 COVID relief meals across 14 cities each day.
With a kitchen team that works on two shifts to prepare COVID relief meals and numerous organizations to deliver them to those in need, Annamrita Foundation is working tirelessly to alleviate hunger among various communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the notable acts of bravery and determination portrayed during the pandemic was by the healthcare sector of our country. Right from day one, the hospital staff of our country dedicated their efforts towards healing the nation back to health.
With the consistently rising number of COVID casualties, India’s healthcare systems are working round the clock to tackle the situation. In times like these, we believe that it is crucial that the medical staff gets nutritious meals that revitalize them. And this has been the sole mission of our hospital feeding program: to deliver freshly prepared, nutritious meals to our frontline warriors who are relentless in this battle against COVID-19.
Through this initiative, we have been serving meals to all the health care staff including doctors, nurses, assistant staff, pathology staff, and office assistants since March 25th, 2020.
With the pandemic rampant in our country, essential workers in the municipal departments continue to keep the streets clean and sanitized every day; a step that reduces the infection rates. In times like these, where they put themselves and their families in harm’s way to ensure our safety, we have dedicated our efforts towards helping them get the nourishment they deserve. The COVID relief meals include a full course meal cooked with utmost care in our kitchens.
The beneficiaries of this program include workers at the Maintenance, Public Health, Water, Social Justice, Disaster Management, and Solid Waste Management departments.
Several months into the COVID-19 pandemic, hunger threatens millions of Indians more than ever, with women and children being the worst hit. Several school-going children no longer had access to mid-day meals.
As the long-term effects of the pandemic begin to surface, we realized the need to redirect our efforts toward feeding the most impacted communities in India.
Leveraging our kitchens across the country, the Kit Of Joy program focuses on delivering healthy and wholesome nutrition, in the form of dry rations and provisions.
Each Kit of Joy donated to a child consists of:
We have already served more than 8 crore Kits Of Joy to people in 8 states.
Annamrita has long resolved to uplift the health status of children by liberating them from the vicious cycle of Illiteracy and Malnutrition by providing them nutritious and hygienic mid-day meals prepared in hi-tech kitchen which nourishes the body and improves the nutritional status among young children. Its mid day meal program is being implemented in municipal, government aided and non-aided schools for the benefit of underprivileged children. The work is done without any commercial motive and the benefits are available to needy students at large without any discrimination on the grounds of religion, caste, creed or gender.
Since the launch of the school lunch program, Annamrita has set up state-of-the-art kitchens in 8 states and 21 cities namely; Tardeo, Mahula, Mira Bhayandar, Nigdi, Palghar, Aurangabad, Wada, Nagpur, Jalna, Delhi, Jamshedpur, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Kurukshetra, Palwal, Kolkata, Jaipur, kadapa, Nellore, Rajamundary, Ranganarra Gadda, and Tirupati.
Feeding the lesser privileged is an act of compassion that is accepted across all religions. Since time immemorial “Anna Daan” or the act of donating food is supreme and incomparable to any other form of charity. Annamrita’s program, ‘Tithi Bhoj’ enables you to sponsor meals on special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, festivals, promotions etc. for underprivileged children. By partnering with Annamrita on such occasions you not only continue this tradition but also help sponsor meals and bring smiles to millions of lesser privileged children in slums and tribal schools.
We have made it easy for you to donate to our NGO with payment options like online, net banking or cash. If you prefer to make a monthly pledge, we will gladly assist with the same and provide a tax-deductible receipt. A standing instruction can also be given to your bank, or you can send a donation by mail to the administrative office.
One question that the Annamrita team has been asked often is how corporate employees can be more involved in the project. Our program ‘Khichdi Drive’ was started with the goal of getting corporates and institutions more involved in the project. Annamrita hosts a khichdi tasting at a corporate office, wherein, employees get to taste the same khichdi that is being served to the children across schools that day. This activity not only helps us fundraise but also creates greater awareness for our cause.
So, if you can’t directly donate to our NGO but can connect us to your HR team or speak about our work to your CSR Manager, we would be happy to come and host a khichdi drive at your premises.
