The thousand odd members of the group chipped in with pulses like green moong, sukha chana, sukha watana and aakha masoor since Palghar residents eat rice and are not used to eat chapatis.
The Food Army, a well known charitable group which believes that small efforts lead to big impact, distributed 8,000 kgs of pulses in malnutrition-hit Palghar district to celebrate 'Annapurna Din'.
Rintu Rathod, the founder-President of The Food Army told DNA that they are celebrating February 12, 2017 as Annapurna Din. Last year, they distributed thepla and cup cakes for the street children in Mumbai and this year they collected and distributed food-grains, mainly pulses for Palghar children and old-age home.
It all started with the group sending theplas to calamity hit Kashmir in 2014. The efforts were repeated by the team next year which sent one lakh theplas in all to Nepal and Chennai.
Rathod who is a commercial designer was moved after the news of floods in Kashmir in September 2014 and contacted her friends in Mumbai to explore the ways in which they can chip in for the calamity hit region. Rathod along with her friends collected and sent 35,000 theplas in three days to Kashmir.
She later gathered phone numbers of all those who chipped in by making 25 theplas each so that a group can be formed. In April 2015, the group collected one lakh theplas in a single day to help Nepal earth-quake victims. They did it again while helping out flood affected people in Chennai.
Last year while celebrating Annapurna Din, The Food Army which has core team of six members and a committee of 22 members collected theplas and cup cakes all made by them and distributed it to street children in Mumbai. Rathod informed that this year there were 40 collections centres and they had to close down collection centre on first day since`Mumbai Dil Kholake Deti Hai (Mumbai gives wih an open heart)’ if one has right intentions.
Rathod along with her Vice-President Vinita Hurkat and core team member Shefali Thacker asked the thousand odd members to chip in with pulses like green moong, sukha chana, sukha watana and aakha masoor since Palghar residents eat rice and are not used to eat chapatis. Rathod told that pulses were collected since they can be easily stored and used by the Palghar people.
Rathod told that out of fifteen member team that went to Palghar on Sunday to distribute pulses, there was no one who was not in tears. She said, "many a members told that they never celebrated Valentine Day in such a meaningful manner and our purpose of celebrating it on February 12 as Annapurna Din is successful." Rathod said that she had appealed the members to make needy children as their Valentines and instead of spending on greeting cards, one gets satisfaction and fulfilment by participating in this noble act.
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