Short Story of locdown diaries
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HELPING THE NEEDY WITH FOOD DONATION DRIVE
Harsh Mandavia, Entrepreneur and Social Cause Champion.
Lockdown of 2020 has been a life-changing phase in my life for two good reasons. First, I was facing an emotional setback personally and second, a sudden disconnect from the world, it was my first time of being in isolation at home.
I really needed to channelise the negative energy into something worthwhile, I had to get up and act. So, I went for the first food donation drive and got myself involved in some worthy social work. I began to feel joy by feeding the needy. It was like my 'Kensho' moment (turning pain into power).
My mother Heena Mandavia and I run a humble delivery kitchen Harsh Thali and Parathas with the tagline - Mom Makes, Son Sells in Kandivali, Mumbai.We have been serving home-made food since the past 21 years at nominal costs. So, when the lockdown was announced in March 2020, we naturally shut down the kitchen for a couple of weeks. However, in April, 2020,we started getting calls from hospitals near our locality asking for food for doctors and nurses on Covid-19 care duty. A lot of students, bachelors andprofessionals who couldn't cook at home, started calling us for food. That’s when we realised that despite being well-off enough, there were many people who were facing difficulty in finding nutritious food on a daily basis. We were heartbroken to think of the needy who couldn’t afford any food or shelter and had not a single meal to eat during the day. Lockdown could be harsh for the unemployed.
I believe that ‘Thoughts become things’ and universe had to make a way. In May, one of our regular customers Abhinav Chaudhary wished to donate money for feeding 100 people. He asked me to find the needy people and feed them since he didn't want to risk going out due to corona risk. I had posted an appreciation post on my social media handle regarding the first food donation activity during lockdown and soon people started to reach out to help with resources, purely on trust basis.
In first two days, we received Rs11,000 and then we started feeding the needy on daily basis. I continued to post pictures and videos of the food donation drive every week with the hashtag #AbhiSabNormalNaiHuaHai on all my posts. This message digitally reached people far and wide that situation on-ground was still grim and there were still many in need and facing a humanitarian crisis.
It is unbelievable how kindness is at the core of all humans. As on 22 November, 2020 (completing over 180 days of the cause), we had collected funds from 10 countries and 285 donors across the globe. Our fundraiser is still going on. We don’t see this stopping anytime soon since now it’s not just about feeding the needy during lockdown, it has become a long-term vision for us - A vision where we empower the entire supply chain.
I LOVE CYCLING: Being an avid cycling enthusiast, I’ll be completing my first 100 days cycling streak by mid-January 2021 with a final 200 kms ride from Mumbai to Lonavala and back.