New Delhi, 30 September 2020: SEEDS (Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society), a Humanitarian organisation has partnered with Honeywell to distribute food kits among people affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The partnership aims to provide 1.07 Crore meals across nine cities. The target group of the initiative include daily wagers, contract workers, and migrant populations who have been displaced because of the lockdown.
While phase-1 of the distribution drive provided around 3.7 million meals across five cities, in phase-2, this partnership aims to provide an additional 7 million meals across nine cities: Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Pune, Madurai, Haridwar, Dehradun, Chennai, and Hyderabad. Cumulatively, this multi-city outreach will cover 1.78 lakh people.
Each food kit comprises rice, wheat flour, sugar, pulses, cooking oil, and salt.
At the beginning of the countrywide lockdown, there was a huge outpouring of support for the displaced and marginalized. These efforts have come down significantly since the country began to restart and reopen. However, there are large swathes of population - especially among migrant workers - that continue to suffer from job losses and depleted savings.
Co-Founder of SEEDS, Manu Gupta said, "We are committed to reaching out to the bottom 1% most vulnerable communities during any crisis. Though the country is currently under the unlock phase, there are still communities struggling against daily hardships."
While President of Honeywell India, Akshay Bellare said, "In the last few months, Honeywell reached out to five cities and offered 12,300 relief packages to 61,500 people. We are doing yet another drive to offer basic food rations across multiple cities in support of communities."
Over the coming weeks, SEEDS will engage with social volunteers and government officials to undertake the distribution drive.
