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 Ankit Kawatra - National Awardee 

 
Date of Publish - Saturday, 27th January 2018

Hunger kills more people in India every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. It’s shocking and sad to know that hunger is the leading cause of deaths in our country. At the same time, did you know that 40% of food goes waste in India and is enough to feed one third of the poor. Can you connect the dots? Does it ring a bell? What we call food wastage is food security for others.


Feeding India is a not-for-profit social organization which aims to solve the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the country. We channelize extra nutritious food from individuals, weddings, restaurants, corporate offices to the people who really need it and have no means or access food. We also serve freshly cooked food or raw grains to our partnered shelter homes and beneficiaries. Humble Beginnings It all started when Ankit Kawatra, the founder of Feeding India attended a grand wedding where there were 35+ cuisines. He wondered what would happen to so much food and decided to stay back.
Ankit witnessed heaps of excess food being sent straight to the bin which could have fed 5,000+ people just that night. At 22, he quit his well-paying job and a growing career at an MNC to do something which he felt is more important- making India a hunger and food-waste free nation. Ankit is one of those people who want to create a difference in the world.


Hunger Heroes:
The initiative is headed by a core team of working professionals who come from different backgrounds like consulting, marketing, e-commerce, etc. Starting with a team of 5 in August 2014, we now have a network of more than 7000+ volunteers in 50+ cities that have joined this growing movement. In a short span of time, we have served close to 9 million + people. Every time one of our volunteers completes a cycle of picking up excess food and donating it to the hungry, we call them a ‘Hunger hero’.


Programs:
Feeding India has four main projects through which we serve food to our beneficiaries. We provide balanced diet and nutritious meals to people who cannot access or earn food for themselves, namely- children, elderly and specially-abled. We also provide them skill development workshops.


Poshan To Paathshala Through this program, Feeding India works to ensure that vulnerable children from the unprivileged section of the society get access to proper education during their childhood by providing them food on a regular basis and tracking their nutritional intake. Feeding India works to provide children nutritious meals during their school hours as an incentive for education. The food is given after studying the nutritional requirements of the children and includes all the nutrients necessary for the child to be active.


This results in:
Increase in the number of children attending school
Increases new student enrollments
Better concentration and more activeness during the students' academics
Extra-curricular activities Most of Feeding India's education programs witness 100% new student enrollments within 6-8 months and better class attendance by 80%

Magic Truck:
The Feeding India Magic Truck Program is a unique program that ensures a 24 X 7 running vehicle that collects and redistributes excess food to people in dire need. While there are thousands of marginalized people in homeless shelters, orphanages, old age homes in urban cities who do not have enough food to eat, there is massive amount of extra food that is thrown away every day. Rather than being thrown away, this extra food can be a meal for those in need. The Feeding India Magic Truck collects these large quantities of food especially from functions, cafeterias, events, etc. and serves meals to target beneficiaries while maintaining ensuring proper quality of the food. The food is tested for all primary and secondary censors while collection, at donation center and before being consumed, and is kept safely and hygienically complying with Food Safety tests. Further, the food served by the Magic Truck is given as proper meals considering the nutritional requirements of the beneficiaries.

Disaster Relief Program

In 2017, alone there have 7 cases of serious floods in India. This results in families losing their houses, livelihood and even loved ones. This biggest challenge in recovering from such disasters is the post disaster relief. Families do not have access to medical aid, proper clothing and most importantly limited or no access to food. Through the National Disaster Relief Program, Feeding India sends food along with other necessary relief material to the disaster hit victims. Each food relief packet contains rice, pulses, ingredients and vitamins and can serve an entire family of four. All relief material is distributed by on ground Feeding India volunteers or partnered agencies.

Hunger Hero Program

Feeding India works with more than 7,500 volunteers in 55 cities to redistribute excess food to people in need and spread awareness about no food wastage. Feeding India volunteers are called Hunger Heroes, since we believe that they do something for our society which is no less than what Batman did for Gotham city or Superman for Metropolis. In 2017, Feeding India Hunger Heroes served 3,028,720 meals to people in need

 

United Nations Recognition
Ankit Kawatra, Founder of Feeding India, has been appointed as one of United Nation’s 17 Young Leaders for the Sustainable Development //Goals from across the world. He has been recognized for his leadership and contribution to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Goals to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice by 2030. Ankit has been selected from over 18,000 nominations from 186 different countries.

‘ Honored by the Queen of England at the Buckingham Palace’

On November 30, 2016 Ankit Kawatra from India won the Queen's Young Leaders award in UK for his exceptional work in transforming the lives of others and making a lasting difference in the communities. He is among 60 other individuals from the entire world to have won the Queen's Young Leaders Award 2017. Ankit will be presented the award by Her Majesty The Queen herself at a gala ceremony in Buckingham Palace in June 2017, over the course of a one week residential programme in the UK.

Forbes 30 under 30
Social Entrepreneur On April 13 2017, Ankit Kawatra, founder of Feeding India has been named in the Forbes 30 under 30 list under the Social Entrepreneurs category from India.

 

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