"No one shall go to bed hungry"
Did you know:
The challenge is not a lack of food – it is making food consistently available to everyone who needs it.
Hunger kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria and terrorism combined.
Every 10 seconds a child dies from hunger.
82% of hungry people live in countries with food surpluses, not food shortages.
One in every eight children sleeps hungry every night.
One third of the food produced around the world is never consumed.
There are 850 million hungry people in the world.
Modern-day Robin Hood with a difference
The Robin Hood Army (RHA) volunteer is unmistakable even from a distance – in a bright leaf green collared Tee and the words ‘Robin Hood Army’ emblazoned on the back in white – picking up food at any time of the day or night after just a phone call, and driving down with it to where the homeless sleep, either at a night shelter, or on the footpath. The RHA volunteer is a familiar face to the hungry homeless, and is greeted with warm smiles when he approaches. “It’s something that gives me immense satisfaction to be able to feed some hungry mouths. Now many residents, hotels, and restaurants know whom to call when they have some food left over. They too feel good that their food is not going to be wasted. It gives them some good karma too!” says an ever-smiling Pradeep Raheja, a volunteer from the Koregaon Park-Kalyani Nagar area in Pune.
The Robin Hood Army, started in August 2014, is a volunteer based, zero-funds, apolitical organization that works to get surplus food from restaurants and the community to serve less fortunate people.
Spread across 11 countries and 182 cities, the army of 60,000+ volunteers have served around 30.1 million people till date and in the process curbed food wastage and eliminated hunger globally.
Local chapters are run by friends and colleagues, who hope to create a difference in their own unique way. For example, restaurants in the neighbourhood Koregaon Park, Pune, will contribute to the homeless of the locality, through volunteers who live in Koregaon Park and nearby localities. The “Robins” are largely students and young working professionals – everyone does this in their free time. The lesser fortunate sections of society served include homeless families, orphanages, patients from public hospitals, and old age homes.
Robin Hood Army’s vision is to beat global hunger and bring out the best of humanity using food as a medium. The idea is to create self-sustained chapters across the world who will look after their local community. And in the process, inspire people around us to give back to those who need it most.
The volunteers also teach children at the Robin Hood Army Academy with the aim to groom street and slum children to be able to join the nearest government school. Some volunteers have even offered their private property to the Academy to run their schools.
To know more about the Robin Hood Army, we recommend that you watch two TED talks below:
“Eat.Feed.Love” by Suvarna Mandal
“How one morsel can make a difference” by Aarushi Batra
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