27 December,2020 01:25 PM IST | Mumbai | Phorum Dalal
Restaurateur Paritosh Pant has 250 volunteers working daily to feed thousands of Govandi residents. Pic/Atul Kamble
When the lockdown was announced on March 22, chef-restaurateur Paritosh Pant, 29, was one of many who spent hours in the kitchen showing off his cooking skills on Instagram. One day, when he was baking pav, he realised that lakhs were going hungry.
His next post on social media was not about his dinner, but the idea to adopt and empower a community by setting up a kitchen that would distribute meals to residents going hungry in the neighbourhood. The Powai resident, who owns the Too Much Drama restaurant chain, had to shut the Kharghar outlet due to the pandemic. But his experience in hospitality came handy elsewhere. A man named Sajid Khan replied to his post. Associated with a political party, he shared the plight of people in Govandi. The idea attracted like-minded people: a high court lawyer friend helped with paper work, a copywriter offered to help with communication. "Within five days, the kitchen was set up using video call coordination," says Pant.
Feeding From Far focuses on supplying meals to all of Govandi, and started with two meals for 2,000 people. The first day was a confused disaster, so Pant identified leaders, formed volunteer teams for packing, delivery, kitchen work, etc. Mehfooz Khan, a hospitality graduate from Anjuman Islam, for instance, took over kitchen operations. Locals offered their empty shops to store ration.
For the first 45 days, food was cooked twice, with 250 on-ground volunteers. "Knowing Govandi is the largest waste ground in Mumbai, we were against using plastic. A friend who owns a printing press offered to supply paper to wrap the food. We created our own version of a pav bhaji - 50 per cent potatoes, 20 per cent vegetables, 20 per cent pulses, 10 per cent fat and flavour. We stuffed this dry mix inside a pav, and wrapped it in paper." Two months into the initiative, funds started drying up. And they changed the game plan to supplying dry ration every week. The team divided Govandi into 45 sub locations and identified a local, who'd coordinate with the needy. On a day when the trucks were delayed and lunch reached the people at 5 pm, a group told Pant that they went hungry because they relied solely on his food. "It was then that I realised the impact of the campaign - far greater than I had imagined."
Ten months on, Feeding from Far has raised Rs 1.7 crore through donations, becoming top achievers on Ketto.org with Rs 90 lakh raised on the crowdfunding site. Currently being run under the umbrella of NGO Prayatna, it has received shout outs from stand-up comedian Abish Mathew, cricketer AB de Villiers and even Virat Kohli. "My school friend, Antara Atrey is studying at INSEAD, Singapore. She ran a fundraiser in Singapore with her friend who cycled around to raise funds for us," says Pant. And then friends working in Facebook offices around the world (LA, London, India) offered him their free monthly credits to help boost Facebook promotions.
"The plan is to start classrooms in Govandi for vocational skills. There are educated youngsters who end up driving a taxi or working as peons" says Pant, who adds he is happy to see the youth harbour social service and political ambitions. "Problems can be solved at the grassroots level, if we have the right people working on policy implementation."
