The Newz Biz Team, Pune
SEEDS, a leading humanitarian organization, has partnered with Honeywell to distribute food kits that will provide 10.7 million meals across nine cities to people who have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. These include daily wagers, contract workers, and migrant population who have been displaced because of the lockdown.
While phase-1 of the distribution drive provided around 3.7 million meals across five cities, in phase-2, this partnership aims to provide an additional 7 million meals across nine cities: Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru, Pune, Madurai, Haridwar, Dehradun, Chennai, and Hyderabad. Cumulatively, this multi-city outreach will cover 1.78 lakh people.
At the beginning of the countrywide lockdown, there was a huge outpouring of support for the displaced and marginalized. These efforts have come down significantly since the country began to restart and reopen. However, there are large swathes of population – especially among migrant workers – that continue to suffer from job losses and depleted savings.
Yezdani Rahman, Chief of Program, SEEDS, said, “We at SEEDS are committed to reach out to those in need, in the face of covid-19 pandemic since the very beginning. With the crisis still looming large, the challenge to sustain lives continues to prevail and we remain strong with people fighting against it. Through our second phase of ration distribution with support from Honeywell, we aim to reach out to more number of families in respective regions than in the first phase.”
Each food kit comprises rice, wheat flour, sugar, pulses, cooking oil, and salt. Pune being a metropolitan hub has attracted professionals from across the world. Unfortunately, the city has experienced maximum number of covid-19 cases in India and has also been adversely affected by reverse migration to a larger extent. Since the city also served as connecting locations for other tourist destinations it is one of the worst affected places probably in the longest duration.
The ration distribution drive is carried in the Magarapatta community situated in Hadapsar of Pune in the presence of Mr. Jamshed Karkaria, Facilities Management Manager, Honeywell Automation India Limited. Over the coming weeks, SEEDS will engage with social volunteers and government officials to undertake the distribution drive.