For Ankit Kawatra, achieving zero hunger has always been his number one goal. When he attended a celebrity wedding in India, and saw enough food to feed 5,000 hungry people get tossed into the trash, he knew he had to do something about it.
“It all started after I attended a large wedding in the capital of India. I was appalled at how much food was going to waste in a country where 194 million are undernourished,” said Kawatra.
He left his job at a global business advisory firm and launched an initiative to end food waste and hunger.
It began with just five of his friends helping collect food from parties, weddings, corporate events and redistributing the food to those in need. Quickly, the movement Kawatra ignited expanding into a vast network of people who wanted to help. And so, at the young age of 22, Kawatra founded Feeding India in 2014.
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His vision was to pair together two issues which to him seems ludicrous not to unite — hunger and food waste. If you just redistribute the food, both food waste and hunger can be solved.
Today, Feeding India is expanding its massive network of over 2,000 volunteers who have served 1 million meals across India.
The volunteers call themselves Hunger Heroes and they truly are. They take calls from anyone interested in donating food across 28 states in India. Then volunteers go out and “rescue” the food, saving it from ending up in landfills, and check to make sure the food is safe. The food is then transported to a donation location, where anyone in need can come collect a warm meal. The final step — “celebrate together.”
“Our mission has always been to reach zero hunger. We’re focused on a sustainable model that continues to expand and plan to reach 5,000 volunteers by 2017,” said Kawatra.
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