“Feed Chennai” Update - May 1 to 10

I’m happy to share with you that the Feed Chennai Initiative has scaled significantly in its abilities to provide much needed food relief to Daily Wage Earners, Migrant Workers and the Homeless in Chennai, India.

Repatriation of Migrant Workers
On May 8, we kicked off a new activity – providing Bottled Water and Fresh Bread to Migrant Workers being repatriated to their home states, for their long train journeys home. During the last 3 days we provided 2,800 loaves of bread and 5,600 liters water to 2,800 migrant workers travelling in 3 trains back to Jharkhand, Orissa, and the North East.

Ex-factory Procurement
In an effort to ensure that every Rupee / Dollar we raise is used to feed people, I’m happy to share that we have enlisted the support of the following businesses / brands to provide us with products at factory prices:

• Water – Bisleri, Aqua Best
• Bread – Modern Foods, French Loaf, Parfait, Writer’s Café, Winner’s Bakery
• Masala Powders – Aachi Masala

This helps us save significant costs associated with distribution, wholesale and retail margins. We are continuing our efforts to grow the number of brands and products we procure at ex-factory prices. Our focus for this week ahead is Rice, Pulses, Wheat Flour, Sugar, Mustard, Jeera and Vegetables. If you have a relationship with a business that can help, please do get in touch with us!

CSR Partners
We are thankful to the following organizations for supporting us when we needed their help the most:

• Hotel Savera - 7,600 Meals (Apr 15 to May 3)
• Gold Winner (KRPL) - 6,000 meals (Apr 29 and ongoing)
• GoFrugal - 300 Relief Kits

We are continuing to engage with organizations to broaden our CSR support base and build valuable relationships. If you have relationships with organizations that we can partner with, please do get in touch with us.
 
NGO / Volunteer Collaboration
We have also made significant progress towards our key goal of achieving better collaboration between NGOs and Volunteer Groups.
On May 5 we launched the *Feed Chennai NGO Helpline* with a team of 5 dedicated resources from RR Donnelley’s CSR team calling and reaching out to NGOs in Chennai. With the help of our new team, we have successfully onboarded 50 NGOs in the first week of our effort!

Food Relief (Apr 15 to May 10)
We are continuing to provide food for those in distress and have served 38,700 meals so far.

Fund Raising & Expenditure (Apr 15 to May 10)
We have raised a total of INR 21.80 Lakhs (USD 28,700) in cash and kind and would like to thank each one of our supporters for their valuable contribution!

We have spent a total of INR 13.31 Lakhs (USD 17,650) on the following items:

• INR 8.38 Lakhs ($11,100) - 38,700 meals
• INR 3.46 Lakhs ($4,600) - 350 relief kits
• INR 0.97 Lakh ($1,300) - 3,200 loaves of bread
• INR 0.50 Lakh ($650) - 7,000 liters of water

Funds available as on May 10 – INR 6.8 Lakhs ($9,000)

NEXT STEPS
The extended lockdown period has had a devastating effect on the already distressed communities that we work with. Almost all of them have lost their jobs and have no prospect of being employed for the next 2 months or more.
 
Since the beginning of May, the number of people in distress has increased significantly and we are receiving more than double the usual number of requests for meals and grocery kits than during the month of April.

While we are very thankful for the start we have made, we need your help in raising an additional INR 30 Lakhs ($40,000) to meet these growing needs till the end of June.

We request you to continue to support us, and also share these links with a small note requesting your contacts to support the “Feed Chennai Initiative”?
For contributions in INR - https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-feed-chennai
For contributions in Other Currencies - https://www.gofundme.com/f/hpvt2-a-cause-i-care-about-needs-help

Update (April 15 to 30)
On behalf of the Feed Chennai team, we would like to thank you for your support, which was critical in helping us begin working on Apr 15.
During the month of April (from 15th to 30th)…
We raised Rs. 19.25 Lakhs
We served 19,510 meals
  - Our beneficiaries included:

• Homeless – 9,050 meals
• Stranded migrant labourers – 8,600 meals
• Daily wage earners – 1,860 meals

  - Our meals included:

• Channa Biriyani / Pulav
• Jeera Rice + Brinjal Curry
• Peas Pulav + Channa Masala
• Sambar Rice + Potato Curry
• Tomato Rice + Vadagam
• Vegetable Pulao / Biriyani

We provided essential groceries to support 30,000 meals
  -  Each kit contains the following items and supports a family of four for 10 to 12 days

• Rice – 10 kg
• Dhal – 2 kg
• Oil – 1 L
• Wheat Flour – 1 kg
• Mustard – 100g
• Jeera – 100g
• Chili Powder – 250g
• Turmeric Powder – 50g
• Salt – 1 kg
• Vegetables - 6 kg

It will help a lot if you can share these links with those who would like to support the Feed Chennai initiative:
For donors in India - https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-feed-chennai
For Overseas donors - https://www.gofundme.com/f/hpvt2-a-cause-i-care-about-needs-help