Atria Foundation launches app that enables individuals to feed the hungry amid coronavirus lockdown

With lockdown restrictions largely in place in Bengaluru, the problem of hunger and providing basic meals persists. It is estimated by the Atria Foundation that Bengaluru needs 600,000 meals a day to feed the hungry. To solve the issue, Atria Foundation has built an app that will enable those who want to do their bit to contribute to the cause of feeding the needy.

Families that are willing to cook a simple single-dish meal for at least 50 members can go to atriafoundation.org app and register themselves as ‘kitchens’.

Atria will collect the meals and distribute around the city. Volunteers who are willing to collect meals from kitchens can register themselves on atriafoundation.org app as ‘location volunteers’. Atria Foundation will act as the link to collect the food packets and get it delivered to the needy while following the standard operating procedures.

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With the help of individual homes, Atria Foundation hopes to cook 600,000 meals daily to ensure no one in Bengaluru remains hungry.

The foundation has already provided 35 lakh free meals since the lockdown began.

"Yet there is a sense of foreboding that as a society we are not reaching deep within ourselves to help the truly down and out. These are extraordinary times. No one living has seen such devastating effects that a pandemic can do to individuals, communities, societies, nations, and humanity itself," says Kaushik Raju, the COO of The Atria Group.

The lockdown has broken many supply chains and rendered millions of people jobless and hungry. The central government has proposed to launch a portal for the migrant workers who were made to stay in shelters to check the spread of COVID-19 in India. Called the National Portal for COVID-19 Affected Unorganised Migrant Workers, the portal will be an helpline for unorganised sector workers who are stranded in the make shift clusters. 

"While what we have done at Atria Foundation is a drop in the ocean, it requires much more of each one of us. Those in the first flush of humanity reached out quickly but today there is flagging of energy. Our data based on our call centre number suggests those in need of a helping hand are growing by the day. What little reserves many had is long gone and they too are desperately seeking help," says Kaushik.