Delhi government to set up food bank for poor & hungry

To check food wastage at wedding receptions, parties and other social functions, Delhi government is working on an ambitious proposal to set up food banks -- having cooked as well as uncooked food -- for distribution among the hungry and poor people in the city.

The scheme, to be introduced as a pilot project, is being modelled on the lines of food banks in Chicago in the US where community groups run them to feed hungry people by collecting excess food from hotels, wedding receptions and through voluntary donations from individuals as well as various organisations.

The proposal to set up food bank in the city was first mooted by technocrat Sam Pitroda during a meeting he had with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in June this year.

The basic idea of setting up food bank is to ensure that excess food at various social functions does not go waste.

Pitroda is a member of the board of World Food Bank which supports a chain of NGOs in 21 countries which in total feeds around 41 million people every year.

As per the proposal, the food banks in the city will be run by NGOs and people will be asked to donate food to these food banks voluntarily to feed the hungry.

Pitroda's proposal was enthusiastically agreed to by the city government as Chief Minister Dikshit, following a lavish wedding of a son of a city politician, expressed concern over wastage of food at marriage receptions and asked Congressmen to hold such functions in a "simple" manner.

"Everyday a lot of food goes waste at various parties, functions and marriage receptions.

"We can directly collect the excess food and distribute it among the hungry people. This is the broad idea," a top official told PTI.

The official said by use of information technology, the scheme can be made more effective as people can pledge food online and get other details about procedure to collect and location of food banks.

"The excess food often goes waste as we do not have any system to distribute it and that is why we have come up with the idea," he said, adding that the scheme is in the planning stage only.

Any citizen can come to a food bank and donate anything including uncooked food items.

Currently, city government is running a programme called 'Aap Ki Rasoi' under which cooked food is being served to the homeless and poor people.

The programme, part of government's Bhagidari initiative, was launched in 2008 with the aim of providing nutritious meal to the destitute.

Various business houses as well as government PSUs have contributed financially to implement the programme.

Currently, 13 'Aap Ki Rasoi' centres are functioning in various parts of the city.