Shri Sachin Pilot calls for a major awareness campaign to address malnourishment”

New Delhi 17^th October 2012: Culminating the FoodDrive on the World FoodDay, Sachin Pilot, Honorable Minister of State, for Communications and Technology Government of India provided direction to corporations to take part to address the issue of malnutrition and hunger across the country.

Shri Sachin Pilot was highly elated by the contributions of the various corporates and stake holders involved in the Food Bank “I thought to myself when I came to know about the initiative, I wanted to help in any possible way I could. About 46% of children under the age of 5 are malnourished, while India is not a food deficient country. There needs to be a major awareness campaign on the lines of effective campaigns like Pulse Polio and HIV Aids.”

“Culturally Indians have been distributing food on major auspicious occasions and it is in our DNA and the target of 100 thousand tons can be easily achieved”

Commenting on the largest government campaign of Mid day Meal he said “Almost 120 million children are feed everyday in the largest program of its kind. But there is a high need of checks and balances and greater transparency.”

Siraj Chaudhry, CEO Cargill India said “Providing for food is in the ethos of Indian Society. Hunger is easier to address but the larger challenge is malnourishment which needs to be addressed at the micro level as it is not visible.”

Parul Soni Executive Director and Practice Leader Ernst & Young, said “Its a great achievement to collect 31 tonnes through the Food Drive in just a week. Larger targets of integrating with the state governments is required to take this forward”

Governor  Scott McCallum, CEO Aidmatrix Foundation said “ The most important thing we can do in India and this world is to get others involved .This is a start and we need to take this forward to address the problem with a proven solution.”

Vikas Upadhyay, General Manager Carrier India emphasized on the development of infrastructure to reduce loss and wastage of food across the supply chain. “We are looking forward to help nurture food banks across the country through collection and distribution.”

Kuldip Nar, Managing Director, Aidmatrix Foundation, India highlighted how the pilot implementation has been a success with the valuable support of partners. He specially thanked the Delhi Government for providing the much needed support to work towards the FoodBanking integration for the scaling up of Jan Ahaar and Aap Ki Rasoi programs being run by Delhi Government. The FoodBanking initiative with an adaptable model in Delhi is ready to scale operations in Delhi and across the Country.  That’s the second level of implementation that will be taken forward.  He highlighted it is the question of plenty that needs to be addressed with an efficient supply chain management leveraging technology.

The idea for the FoodDrive was taken up enthusiastically by corporations with innovative themes to generate individual awareness and donations of food.   Out do yourself was a theme that MTS promoted within their company and also won the most innovative communications.  The maximum quantity of food was contributed by Cargill, India and Aditya Mittal, who ran the Noida FoodDrive as a volunteer and individually raised 3 tons of food was also recognized.  Jubilant Bhartia Foundation integrated the group companies of Jubilant Bhartia group to generate interest across their employee base.

The FoodDrive was organized across 22 corporations that participated to raise awareness and generate food donations.  This FoodDrive from 5 – 12^th October 2012 was able to raise over 30 Tons of Food to feed,  number of people / mails.  This was orgnised by the Delhi FoodBank which is catering to the needs of those who need it most in the Delhi / NCR region. 

The face of the Food Drive is Sonia Rawat who migrated with her parents to Delhi from Chamoli,  loves going to school where she gets nutritional meals, where Delhi FoodBank has started reaching out to and loves her teacher because of this access to food, giving an example of the enabler that food is for social stability and integrated development.

Background Notes:

Hunger and malnutrition pose real problems for India with a quarter of the world’s hungry and a third of all malnourished children living in India, putting us behind even Sub-Saharan Africa on the nutrition scale. It is not a shortage of foodgrains that is responsible for India’s hunger problem but poverty, which denies millions the means to access food.

There has been always a difference between food demand and supply wherein; more of demand and less of supply. The major challenges in garnering the food sources to meet the requirements require:

•   Reduction of food wastage at all levels

•   Improving food logistics through establishment of efficient collection points and ensuring last-mile deliverable

•   Financing the initiative through government support and by encouraging philanthropic activities

India FoodBanking Network is one innovative system and replicable process that is moving food from donors to the people who need it the most and engage all sectors of society towards the effort of fighting against hunger by leveraging Food Banking as a tool to augment Food Security initiatives in the country through a community owned programs driven model.

With the creation of the Delhi FoodBank a member of India FoodBanking Network, thousands of people are provided sustained access to nutritional food since the launch of the initiative on 8th June 2012.

With the aim to feed 2.5 Lakh households by the end of 2013, and to honor & mark the World Food Day on 16th of October 2012 established by Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Delhi FoodBank is organising for the first time a week long ‘Food Drive Challenge’ was held from 5th October 2012 till 12th October 2012.

Objectives of the ‘Food Drive Challenge’ Week
:

•   To start meeting the target of feeding 2.5 lakh households in Delhi & NCR by 2013

•   Encourage the participation of private sector companies to fight against malnutrition & hunger

To expand the foodbank system in India with support from partners

Press Contacts:

Kuldip Nar / Ramona Bakshi

The Aidmatrix Foundation

Email: Kuldip_Nar@aidmatrix.org/ Ramona_Bakshi@aidmatrix.org

Cell Number: 9810007524/9873580515